The Desperate Alliance
by Sirk
Summary: Six Calvin and Hobbes heroes combine forces to fight evil and have adventures. CHAPTER 9 UP!! Calvin, Hobbes, and Spiff go into space!
1. An alliance is born.

Disclaimer: I don't own any C&H characters except for the identity of Ferocious Feline (Will be mentioned in future chapters).  
  
  
  
Author's note: Yeah, the first chapter (Or the basic idea at least) was ElvenKing's, and I was given permission to write it from there. Also, all Stupendous Man-related enemies are not their alter egos. Ex: Rosalyn to Baby-sitter Girl; they aren't the same person.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Spiff's frappe-ray was useless; the naggons had him cornered. His rays were completely ineffective and his spaceship was too far away. Suddenly a streak of crimson flew by; it was powerfully and mighty. It was the renowned Stupendous Man. Now the naggons were angrier than ever. The two engaged in a heated battle between them and the naggons. Then a bullet blasted through the window. It was Tracer Bullet, P.I. His advanced technique of marksmanship, Spiff's arsenal of super-lethal weaponry, and Stupendous Man's stupendous might prevail through the naggon captors. The naggon station existed no more.  
  
"We succeeded," Spiff commented.  
  
"Indeed we did," said Tracer, looking up from an alien, dead and laying at his feet. "Alone we could not vanquish our foes but together we have won."  
  
"I say we join together in a truly strong force to eradicate our unorganized foes," Stupendous Man inquired.  
  
"I'm in," Tracer said.  
  
"Me too," answered Spiff.  
  
"I will die fighting for justice," said Stupendous Man heroically.  
  
Thus was born the alliance of Calvin. The first crime that came was a robbery of the bank by Mom-lady. She was powerful, especially with her deadly hypnosis rays, but was no match for the efforts of Tracer, Spiff, and Stupendous Man. Spiff shot her with special guns, Tracer shot her as well, and Stupendous Man punched her in the face, knocking her out cold. They took her to jail triumphantly. There the three met three new allies: Calvin, a short, blonde-haired boy, Susie, an intelligent brown-haired girl, and Hobbes, a six-foot tall, wise, and justice-seeking tiger. With six powerful, cunning, and daring members, the warriors prepared to fight crime, and the forces of evil.  
  
  
  
Author's note: Here's the idea. If you stop reading here, you will miss out on a lot. Also, if you aren't going to review at all, don't waste your time reading it. 


	2. Attack of the Sitters!

After the first battle with Mom-lady, the heroes had temporarily settled down for about four days. Then, one day, Stupendous Man received word that the notorious Baby-sitter Girl had stolen from the bank. Spiff and Stupendous Man instantly went to the scene of the crime, but Tracer Bullet held back Calvin, Hobbies, and Susie.  
  
"What are you holding me back for?!" Calvin asked impatiently.  
  
"Yeah, we need to help fight with Stupendous Man and Spaceman Spiff!" Susie said.  
  
"Now don't get me wrong," Tracer said, "I actually stopped you 'cause you don't have any weapons. Now, you are only kids, but I entrust these to you." Tracer handed Calvin and Susie a pistol each.  
  
"Wowww…" the two of them said in unison and in awe.  
  
"Hey, what about me?!" Hobbes said, waiting for his pistol.  
  
Tracer Bullet looked up at Hobbes. "I have a special weapon for you, pussycat," he said, and pulled from his pocket a pair of iron claws, extra sharp and very light. Tracer handed them to Hobbes, who put them on over his wrist like a bracelet.  
  
"This is too… awesome…"  
  
"No time for idle talk," Tracer said in a ready-to-run tone of voice, "I assume you can use these, so let's hurry and help the other two guys." The four ran as fast as they could to the scene of the crime, the city's bank.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man and Spiff arrived at the bank just as Baby-sitter Girl exited the bank. She spent no time looking at them but just kept running. Spiff shot a paralyzing ray at her right arm, the one carrying a big bag of cash. It paralyzed the arm temporarily, causing her to drop the bag to the ground. Stupendous Man flew toward Baby-sitter Girl to land a final KO-ing blow, but was kicked aside by n unknown force onto the ground. When he got up, he saw Baby-sitter Girl's assistant in crime, Baby-sitter Guy (Charlie). Spiff was already firing laser shots at both, but Baby-sitter Girl pulled out a gun and the two shot at the little red spaceship. It fell to the ground, having taken nominal damage but unable to fly. Spiff pulled out his scorcher just in case it was necessary, but Baby-sitter Girl shot it out of his hands. Both Baby-sitter Guy and Girl pointed guns at Stupendous Man and Spaceman Spiff. Suddenly two bullets flew past Baby- sitter Guy & Girl. They turned to see Calvin and Susie pointing smoking pistols at them. Hobbes hadn't arrived yet. Another bullet flew by as well, from Tracer Bullet, which, because Bullet was very experienced, knocked off several strands of hair on Baby-sitter Girl's head. Baby-sitter Girl & Guy turned to all three of them and fought in a shootout, the biggest mistake yet. While the two foes were distracted Spiff and Stupendous Man charged at the two enemies and started to fight them. They were unsuccessful, for Baby- sitter Girl shot the gun out of Spiff's hand, and Baby-sitter Guy shot Stupendous Man in his dominant arm, disabling his martial abilities. Suddenly Hobbes appeared and leaped onto Baby-sitter Guy & Girl, slashing their pistols away. Stupendous Man cuffed Baby-sitter, but Baby-sitter Guy made a run for it. Tracer Bullet shot a bullet at him, which stopped him temporarily, giving Spiff time to catch up with and cuff Baby-sitter Guy. The police arrived moments later and took the two into custody.  
  
"Good work, Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie, I knew that you wouldn't fail me with the weapons I'd given you," Tracer Bullet said, "excellent work with th' weapons."  
  
"We couldn't have done it without the tiger, though," Stupendous Man said, "his skill is exceptionally exquisite, an agile warrior indeed. Very martial."  
  
"Well," Calvin said, "Susie, Hobbes, and I have won our first victory and it becomes increasingly apparent that my destiny was to…"  
  
"What's that?" Spiff asked.  
  
"To fight crime!" 


	3. A New Warrior arrives

Chapter 3: An Old Companion Returns  
  
  
  
The next day was no crime-free day. The police department informed Tracer that Annoying Girl had recently stolen a very valuable emerald known as the Cat's Eye. Everybody went to the City museum to take care of her.  
  
Annoying Girl was a significantly powerful villain, for she had powers like Stupendous Man (In case you are wondering, Stupendous Man's foes WILL NOT be the only enemies in this fanfic), making her more dangerous of an enemy than most any other law-breakers.  
  
  
  
  
  
All of them arrived on time to see Annoying Girl on the street, apparently waiting for them, tossing the emerald up and down.  
  
"So you've come, Stupendous," she said. Looked at the others for a quick instant, she yelled, "All of you, back off! I want a to fight him myself." She pointed at Stupendous Man.  
  
"No! You can't lure me into battles this way!"  
  
"You mean to say," Hobbes said, "that this was a TRAP?!"  
  
"Yes," Stupendous Man replied, "and I must fight, without assistance, to prove she is beatable."  
  
Suddenly Annoying Girl rushed at Stupendous Man and punched him to the ground. Stupendous Man recovered quickly, kicking upward from the ground into Annoying Girl, which knocked her skyward.  
  
"Please do not intervene, this is my battle alone," Stupendous Man said, then flew into the air and met Annoying Girl, floating as well.  
  
"You have fallen to my trap," Annoying Girl stated, "look down there." She pointed downward at the other five. Instantly a large brute appeared by them. He wore a deep red cape like Annoying Girl and was very muscular and robust. "Allow me to demonstrate his immense power." Annoying Girl looked down at the brute. "Hey, BullyBoy!" she yelled. The guy looked up at her. "Go kill the five." Annoying Girl looked back up. "He will definitely---" Annoying Girl looked around. "Where is he?"  
  
Suddenly Stupendous Man kicked her from behind into a large building. He flew after her, but as he came close she kicked him back into the sky and she darted after him. After a swift kick in the head to Stupendous Man she punched him into the air and flew to him. Stupendous Man shot down at her and tackled her; he kept going until the two slammed into the pavement of the street. Stupendous Man quickly cuffed her after a speedy recuperation.  
  
  
  
Bully Boy (Obviously a formation of Moe) came toward Calvin and Susie slowly. The two shot bullets at him but missed terribly, then BullyBoy grabbed their guns and crunched them into oblivion. Hobbes jumped forward to slash him, but BullyBoy punched him in the gut, causing him to fall to the ground with Susie and Calvin. Spiff pulled out his ray gun and set it to "deep-fry," pointing it to BullyBoy, but the macabre fiend snatched it right out of his hands, crunching it into miniscule particles, and giving Spiff an unbearable beating of a lifetime. Tracer Bullet, before BullyBoy was even done beating up Spiff, shot him with a sparker, numbing and causing him to fall to the ground. Tracer cuffed him up, and moments later he saw Stupendous Man flying toward him.  
  
"I got Annoying Girl cuffed, how about you, Tracer?" Stupendous Man said as he landed.  
  
"The other four are unconscious 'cause of BullyBoy over there," Tracer replied, pointing to the half-unconscious BullyBoy. "But I got him cuffed up before he did any more damage. …Hey, you mind showing me where Annoying Girl is? Just in case, y'know…"  
  
"Okay, follow me." Stupendous Man flew to the crater in the ground, with Tracer following him, of course.  
  
The two of them arrived at the crater to see that Annoying Girl was gone. "Where is she?" Tracer asked.  
  
"Oh no… She must have escaped!"  
  
Tracer turned around. "Uh oh… Look behind you!"  
  
But it was too late. Annoying Girl smashed Stupendous Man into a building then flew toward him again. Tracer shot a bullet at her, causing her to turn around, and Stupendous Man kicked her far into the air.  
  
"Tracer," he said, "I'll take care of her. You get the others up and take get BullyBoy to jail."  
  
"Okay," Tracer said, then walked back to BullyBoy to see two things: everybody was back up, taking care of that, but the bad thing was that so was BullyBoy, just like Annoying Girl. He was fighting well and had already knocked Hobbes and Susie flat on the ground. Calvin and Spiff's apprehension from the closing in Bullyboy was affecting their shots unfavorably, and BullyBoy gained on them a quick step at a time. Tracer shot at him, doing no good whatsoever except causing BullyBoy to turn to Tracer, but Spiff shot a burner ray from his scorcher, hitting BullyBoy in time to prevent any further damage. However, he stood back up and continued to walk to Tracer ignoring Spiff completely. Tracer shot warily, but was no match for BullyBoy as he crushed Tracer's gun and picked up the weapon-less man, throwing him into a large building. Susie and Hobbes stood up again with Calvin and Spiff; Tracer was no doubt unconscious. Suddenly Stupendous Man was knocked into the street. Moments later Annoying Girl appeared coming toward the scene.  
  
"Go take care of those!" she yelled to BullyBoy, "I have this one to finish…" Annoying Girl came toward the hole as Stupendous Man jumped out of it. Tracer came out of the building unarmed without his gun. He watched as Stupendous Man all of a sudden broke into a hyper-speed run and tackled Annoying Girl with tremendous force and kept on until they rammed into another building (By now the city was at a shortage of buildings). The Cat's Eye, which Annoying Girl had been holding in her hand, flew into the air and landed near Tracer, who picked it up. Suddenly Stupendous Man was kicked away by Annoying Girl onto the ground again. She flew to him and landed on the ground near him. "You are foolish to try to best me," she remarked, stomping down on his chest.  
  
Suddenly Tracer kicked Annoying Girl down onto the ground, cuffed her hastily, and held the Cat's Eye to her neck. This particular gem was extremely pointy and can easily tear through flesh, sharpened at each angle. "Make one move," he said, "and I'll kill you." Tracer looked at Stupendous Man. "Go take care of BullyBoy over there, okay?" Stupendous Man stood up, nodded, and flew to BullyBoy.  
  
BullyBoy had badly injured the four, and was now attempting to kill them. Stupendous Man flew to him with all his strength and speed, but BullyBoy pulled back his fist and, timed correctly; it struck Stupendous Man with gargantuan force. Stupendous Man was shot straight through two buildings. BullyBoy beat up Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie, but Spiff avoiding his attacks and continued to fire at BullyBoy. Several of his shots hit BullyBoy but, of course, demonstrated by previous failures, were ineffective. Stupendous Man came back to fight, but without hope. It seemed as though all of them had met their match. Suddenly a blast from nowhere hit BullyBoy. Everyone looked up into the sky to see a large tiger-like creature wearing an odd uniform with a red and yellow cape hovering down to the target. Everyone but Stupendous Man, Calvin, and Hobbes were surprised.  
  
"Who's he?" Susie asked.  
  
"Hey!" Stupendous Man said, "Ferocious Feline! Why'd you come back?!"  
  
"Well," he replied, "I figured that after your battle with me against the giant robot you'd probably need my help eventually, so I came." He looked at all the injuries on the others. "…And just on time, I see."  
  
"Sorry, I didn't introduce you. Calvin, Hobbes, both of you know who Ferocious Feline is. Susie, Spiff, and Tracer, this is an old acquaintance of mine that helped me once before. Ferocious, these are my friends. We have started a crime-fighting organization to protect this city and perhaps others."  
  
"Flattered to meet you all."  
  
"Same here," Spiff remarked reluctantly, shaking hands. "Not to interrupt, but we have some unfinished business here, hmm?"  
  
Spiff pointed to BullyBoy getting back up off the ground and looking ready to beat up the seven, but everyone, now with higher hopes, defeated him easily without straining a muscle. All of them took him and Annoying Girl to jail. The Cat's Eye was returned to its rightful owner and the day was saved.  
  
  
  
  
  
The next day, all of them had a meeting with Tracer Bullet.  
  
"I know that the six of you are wondering why we met," Tracer started off saying, "and the reason is because I we need to talk about our last match. It was a disaster. Without Ferocious Feline it would no doubt be the end of our fights. I think that we thought too much of ourselves, believing that we were capable of defeating anyone without practice. I propose that we train ourselves more, because this wasn't even the toughest match we'll probably ever fight and yet we still almost lost. Training starts tomorrow at 'The Martial House.' It's a building equipped with all sorts of training mechanisms that I believe could be of some use in our crime-fighting."  
  
After skeptically agreeing to Tracer's proposition, the seven went out of the meeting, and prepared for another hard battle that could be yet to come. 


	4. Double Trouble

It was two weeks after the showdown with Annoying Girl and BullyBoy. The seven, into only a period of fourteen days, had gained immense strength. One day Spiff was scouting the land in his little red spaceship, searching for anything wrong in the area, just as Stupendous Man had ordered. Stupendous Man was now the leader of the group, as he had gained the most power during the 14-day period of intense training. "My, it sure is cloudy," Spiff said to himself, trying to act casual to himself. Spiff looked down at the controls, then suddenly gasped. He saw, on the weirdness chart, a level of 3.0 lurking somewhere in a 20-mile radius of him. After a few moments of thinking, he picked up a walkie-talkie-like phone and called Stupendous Man.  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man was in the wait room of the training building talking to Ferocious Feline. The training building was a labyrinth that one of the fighters would go in, and they wouldn't know what was going on, who inside there was their ally, or where anybody was. There were police that volunteered to help with it. They used fake laser guns, too.  
  
"Hey Ferocious, how'd you fend with Calvin? He's gotten darn good!" Stupendous Man said as he looked at Calvin and Susie through a window; the two were dueling, shooting their laser guns at each other but not landing a single blow, as each of them was equally good.  
  
"I don't know. I can't avoid harming him when fighting 'cause all I do is laser eyes and that could kill him if it hit him! Plus, I'm no skilled gunman," Ferocious Feline replied; he too was watching Calvin and Susie. Suddenly both of them heard a beeping noise; it was the phone. Stupendous darted to it, picked it up, and answered it.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Stupendous Man? This is Spiff! This is urgent! My weirdness radar detected a level of 3.0 nearby!"  
  
"Uh oh."  
  
"I'm going to investigate it, but I need you guys to help me just in case of danger! I have to go now! Bye!" Spiff got off the phone.  
  
Stupendous Man stood there for a second, then put the phone down.  
  
"Who was it?" Ferocious Feline curiously asked.  
  
"That was-"  
  
Suddenly the phone rang again. Stupendous Man answered it.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"This is the Police Department! We need your help, quickly! Mom-lady escaped from the jail and is hypnotizing cops to do her work! We need someone here, now!" The phone line was cut off abruptly.  
  
"Oh no," Stupendous Man said, then put the phone down.  
  
"What is it?" Ferocious Feline asked once again.  
  
"Well, the first call was Spiff. He has some trouble, and is going to need your and someone else's help." Stupendous Man looked at Tracer Bullet, who was sitting on a bench. "HEY, TRACER!" he loudly yelled. Tracer turned around, gave Stupendous a Do-not-disturb look, and walked toward him.  
  
"What is it now?" he asked, his tone hinted annoyance.  
  
"You and ferocious Feline need to get to Spiff A.S.A.P. No time to explain, just hurry." Stupendous Man thought for a few moments. "Oh yeah, and Ferocious Feline, the second call was from the Police Department. They said Mom-lady escaped and is hypnotizing police cops to do her nefarious bidding. I'll get the other three and deal with her, but you two get your mission done.  
  
"Can do."  
  
"Okay, then!" Ferocious Feline said, then Tracer jumped onto his back and the two flew off into the sky. Stupendous Man went into the labyrinth part of the building to find Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie.  
  
  
  
  
  
Ferocious Feline flew incessantly with Tracer riding on his back to the location of Spiff, who was probably searching for the unidentified enemy right that instant. Tracer Bullet, while still on Ferocious Feline back, pulled out a walkie-talkie-phone from his coat-like vest thing and called Spiff. He talked for half a minute, but Ferocious Feline could not hear what he said. Tracer put the walkie-talkie-phone back in his vest after he finished talking.  
  
"Fly to Colorado," Tracer said all of a sudden, "Spiff said he's there, somewhere near Ooray, and he mentioned that his radar indicated that he was near the foe, whatever or whoever it may be."  
  
The two went to Colorado as fast as they could. They arrived in Ooray, and looked around everywhere until they saw a circular canyon containing, at its base, three downed zargox fighter ships and, at the center of the canyon, Spiff and his little red spaceship with three other fighter ships. Spiff had obviously already disposed of his proton missiles for, although Spiff's ship contain many of them, so were the fighter ships maneuverable, plus the gigantic war-ships were heavily coated with special types of armor. Spiff shot many different rays but they seemed to have little or no effect. His only weapon left, the Hyper Death Ray, would take an amount of time of the ship being still and powering up, and time was something Spiff could not manage. Tracer Bullet, about 2,700 ft. way from the battle area, pulled out his walkie talkie-phone and got Spiff.  
  
Spiff answered unclearly, as fighter ships were pursuing him intensely and, of course, that's no time to talk on a phone-thing. "Yeah?!" Spiff said impatiently.  
  
"It's me, Tracer," Tracer said without waiting or thinking, "I'm about to come in physical contact with the battle, an' Ferocious 'n' I are gonna give you a hand."  
  
"Excellent!" Spiff replied half-happily, while the sounds of the winds slapping against the sides of the ship went through the walkie-talkie- phone. "You go create some diversion," Spiff said at last, "while I power up a Hyper Death Ray that will kill all of them at once!" Spiff hung up abruptly and Tracer put the phone back inside his pocket.  
  
Of course, creating a diversion was all but what Tracer intended to do. Ferocious Feline arrived at the battle zone soon and slowed his flying speed, allowing Tracer to stand up on two legs. He made a surprise attack by pulling out his magnum and breaking through the window of one of the fifty-foot long fighter ships. After that he pulled a grenade from who- knows-where, picked the top off, and through it with grim accuracy through the hole generated into the window. As soon as it landed on the floor in the fighter ship it exploded, destroying that fighter ship. This distracted the other ships and the came to fight Tracer and Ferocious Feline. Ferocious Feline flew near one of the ships and shot a 6-inch-in-diameter laser eye beam through a window, through four small zargoxes, and through the window parallel to the first window. The fighter ship began to fall, but Ferocious Feline quickly flew Tracer to Spiff, put Tracer inside the ship, and flew back to the falling ship extremely quickly. He speedily broke into the ship and got control of it, using it as a weapon. By now Spiff's spaceship had gained enough energy and Spiff released the Hyper Death Ray; it was thicker than the large remaining fighter ship, and it completely engulfed and decimated it. After the battle was over, Spiff took out his walkie-talkie-phone and Ferocious Feline took one out too.  
  
"Good work," Spiff said to Ferocious Feline, "I believe that this group has been eradicated."  
  
"Thank you," Ferocious Feline replied, "but I want to take this back to headquarters for, you know, research. Just tell everyone that I'm no alien!"  
  
"Okay," Spiff said, and both began to leave the area.  
  
But before anyone went anywhere, four more zargox fighter ships suddenly appeared at the scene. Although the three of them were, of course, in shock, they immediately attacked. Ferocious Feline took out two of them with many various powerful weapons; the advantage was partially his because the zargoxes believes he was on their side. But right after the two of them were destroyed the remaining ones shot many different missiles at Ferocious Feline's fighter ship; he escaped it before the entire ship took a conflagration. Spiff, with pliant movement and several rays and beams, gradually destroyed one of the two fighter ships while Ferocious Feline broke into the other fighter ships, killed all the zargoxes, but this time just destroyed it with a wave of strong eye-lasers. After that they were all destroyed.  
  
"Wow, I never suspected another wave of fighter ships," Ferocious Feline stated, still sort of expecting more enemies.  
  
"Yes. Bullet over here has a whole bunch of grenades handy, just in case," Spiff replied.  
  
They started to leave again only to see five, not four but five more zargox fighter ships flying toward their direction. The three were better prepared this time.  
  
Tracer got onto the walkie-talkie-phone and asked Ferocious Feline to come and get him. He did, and the two flew toward the oncoming ships. They did a little combo that was very effective against this sort: Ferocious Feline would get close to the front of the ship and then shoot a laser eye beam at the window, causing it to crack open; then Tracer would throw a half-hatched grenade into it, destroying it. The two did this to three ships before they could react, and it worked successfully, but the last two shot too many rays and explosives at them for the two to get a clear shot at the fighter ships. It did not matter, though, for Spiff powered a Hyper Death Ray and released it on the zargoxes, who were aligned perfectly horizontally giving Spiff a simple target. After the five were gone the three heroes met in the air.  
  
"That was too close," Spiff said in partial relief.  
  
"Will more come?" Ferocious Feline questioned.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not," said Tracer, who was back to regular tranquillity, "either way, we need to immediately contact the others this could be a major attack being attempted."  
  
"Well, we can't call them, so we need to go back to the city. Everyone get on the spaceship," Spiff said, "it'll be quicker that way."  
  
The three of them got inside the little red spaceship, even though it was a slightly tight fit. Spiff flew off back to their headquarters in the city.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man, aided by Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie, ran to Sire Street, where Mom-lady was supposedly forcing the hypnotized police officers to do her work.  
  
"Hey, Stupendous?" Calvin asked.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You've fought Mom-lady, so you would know: What was she like? I mean, we're about to fight her, but we have no clue about what her battle tactics are."  
  
"Hmmm… I believe she's the one who has a thorough understanding of the brain. Yes, she knows much about it so she creates weapons designed for hypnotism, brainwashing, etc. Be careful, she's using her hypnotizing ray, so she'll probably try to turn us against each other."  
  
"Okay," Calvin replied, "we'll be ready."  
  
  
  
The four arrived at the middle of Sire Street, where they saw Mom-lady and a battalion of about 50 hypnotized police officers armed with guns. Mom- lady was at the head of the battalion, holding a hypnotizing ray in her hand.  
  
"So you come, four heroes of the Great Alliance (Not the alliance's real name)," Mom-lady said deviously. 'I have been waiting. Now I get a chance to make you my own warriors!"  
  
All of a sudden Mom-lady pointed her hypnosis-ray at Calvin and pulled the trigger. A beam flew across the sky. Calvin barely managed to dodge it, and it passed by quickly.  
  
"You don't have to worry about being hit by it," Stupendous Man whispered to Calvin, "so long as it doesn't strike you in the eye. If it does, then you're under her sinister control."  
  
Mom-lady shot another shot at Stupendous Man, this time, and he was unaware. It struck him in the eye, and he turned to mom-lady; he was hypnotized.  
  
"Come to me, Stupendous Man!" Mom-lady said, cackling out loud.  
  
"Uh oh," Calvin murmured, and he and Susie and Hobbes ran to Stupendous Man, who was slowly walking toward Mom-lady, although it seemed hopeless.  
  
"Trying to interfere with my plan, eh?" Mom-lady said, then pointed at them. "Go take care of those!" she ordered, and all the police officers rushed to Calvin, Susie, and Hobbes. One of the cops in the front of the mass shot the first shot, which nearly hit Susie. This, obviously, angered Hobbes. He jumped forward and slashed the pistol in the cop's hand into tiny pieces. Others shot at him but Hobbes, being the agile tiger that he was, dodged all shots and slashed away many pistols. Calvin also shot a lot of guns, and neither was ever hit.  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, Mom-lady was hypnotizing Stupendous Man. "You will do as I say, she muttered, "and I say to-"  
  
Suddenly a bullet struck the hypnosis-ray, causing it to fly out of Mom- lady's hand and onto the ground, shattered into hundreds of small shards of steel. Mom-lady turned to see Susie holding a pistol, blowing the smoke off of the top like in a Western pose.  
  
"Get her!" Mom-lady yelled at the police, and they ran toward Susie, passing by Calvin and Hobbes as if they weren't there. Calvin and Hobbes had destroyed all of their pistols, but they pulled out reinforcement pistols from their holsters and aimed them at Susie. But, because he was not fully hypnotized and the hypnosis-ray was gone, Stupendous man helped Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie destroy the pistols in the officers' hands. "You're ruining all of my plans!!" Mom-lady screamed.  
  
"I'll get Mom-lady," Stupendous Man said to Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie, "while you three try to get these officers back to reality."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Okay, then," Stupendous Man said, and flew to Mom-lady, then used Crimson Punch (It was mentioned in "Stupendous Man and… Ferocious Feline?!?" so I'm not going to explain what it looks like) and knocked Mom- lady out cold on the ground.  
  
The three of them turned to the battalion-like group of officers, who, now, were taking small pieces of something, something from their pockets, something neither Calvin nor Hobbes or knew what it was, and connecting them with other officers' pieces. No one of them attacked, for they knew not what they were creating. After about a minute, they saw that the police officers had made three super death-ray guns. Stupendous Man came back to Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie just as the police started firing beams at them. The beams were large and spoke for the police, literally saying, "Get the **** out of my way!" Stupendous Man kicked the barrel off of one of the rays, making it useless. Hobbes easily slashed one of them up, without even being fired at. Calvin and Susie fired at one of the guns, but when they fired the ray, I disintegrated Calvin's gun. Susie continued to fire, but her pistol was destroyed by an officer's pistol.  
  
"Uh oh," Stupendous Man said under his breath. "Hey!" he yelled, "Hobbes!" Hobbes looked at him. "Go destroy the remaining ray gun, and I'll cuff Mom-lady." Stupendous Man said, then flew to Mom-lady.  
  
Mom-lady suddenly kicked Stupendous Man up into the air as a surprise attack. He flew unintentionally skyward until he stopped himself. Then he noticed in Mom-lady's hair a weird device. Hmmm, he thought, That must be the thing controlling the police. I'd better go and destroy it!  
  
Stupendous Man flew back down at Mom-lady with swift speed, snatched the device from her hair, then crunched it into tiny pieces. Suddenly all the police halted fire on the three of Calvin, Susie, and Hobbes. Hobbes, seeing they were no longer enemy, stopped slashing the ray. All of the police pointed their pistols at Mom-lady, Hobbes readied to pounce, and Stupendous Man cracked his knuckles. Mom-lady immediately raised her hands in the air, and she was arrested.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After half an hour, Tracer Bullet, Ferocious Feline, and Spaceman Spiff arrived at headquarters and held a discussion about a possible invasion.  
  
"What I am trying to say," stated Spiff, "is that, because we had an unusual encounter with a zargox fleet, we need to put out a daily patrol to make sure of any aliens' presence."  
  
"But what I am trying to say is that it could be entirely coincidental," Ferocious Feline argued in a debate-form, "and that just us could alone detect any unearthly presence."  
  
"But I, having been fighting aliens for many years, know any and everything possible from a battle such as the one recently fought," Spiff replied to the argument, "and we, even altogether, cannot alone detect any evil. An example is our fight today. Without something informing early we would not stand a chance!"  
  
"But, even if there were enemies coming, we have the power to deal with them," Ferocious Feline interrupted, "we have easily overcome many foes, and I know each person or tiger here is capable of much."  
  
"Wait," Tracer said, interfering with the debate. "I have an idea. We all shall wait one month. If, in one month, no aliens come or invasions begin, we will put out no global patrol. But, if in one month, if there are aliens, we will have to already have some force disposable. Is this agreeable?"  
  
"Yes," everybody said simultaneously, and the meeting ended. 


	5. Challenge

Hobbes and Susie entered the Virtual Chamber simultaneously. They stood in a very large blank white room facing each other. Immediately they began to fight. Hobbes ran at Susie speedily while she drew her pistol. By now both Calvin and Susie had also gained remarkable strength, excluding their pistols. But they were yet to be able to best Hobbes, Stupendous Man, Tracer Bullet, or even Spiff (Ferocious Feline's primary capability was eye- lasers, so he wasn't very physically strong) in might.  
  
Susie shot a couple shots at Hobbes, but he dodged them all nimbly. With his lightning-fast speed, he reached Susie quickly. Released all his tiger might, he slashed Susie continuously in a brutal onslaught. Susie fell to the ground unconsciously. She and Hobbes reappeared outside of the room, absolutely unharmed.  
  
"That was quite a match," Hobbes mentioned to Susie, yawning deeply and looking around. "I guess I've gotten better." Hobbes yawned again, for some freakish odd reason, and turned to see Calvin walking toward him.  
  
"You shouldn't have fought so rough with a girl!" Susie said to Hobbes in a childish tone, not noticing Calvin approaching. "You brute!"  
  
"I'm sorry," Hobbes apologized.  
  
"It's okay!" Susie replied, then hugged Hobbes anti-dramatically. Surprisingly, Hobbes didn't blush.  
  
Calvin made a disgusted expression at this. "Yech…" He thought having no romantic interests in his love life. In reality, his love life was just invisible; he had an obvious unknown crush with Susie. But enough about that.  
  
"Hello Calvin," Hobbes said; his tone obviously suggested that he had viewed Calvin's expression of the hug and Hobbes not blushing as an insult. "And what are YOU looking at?" he sarcastically asked.  
  
"You," Calvin said. "And Susie."  
  
"What about us?!"  
  
"You sissy!" Calvin remarked. "Hobbes, you disgrace tigers! Where's your tiger pride? This is a warrior's building for God's sake!"  
  
"Oh yeah?!" Hobbes said, "I bet you anything that I can beat you anytime anywhere! Then you'll take that back, hm?"  
  
"Sure," Calvin answered much calmer. "That is if you CAN beat me." Calvin turned around and saw Stupendous Man sitting down on a chair at a large table discussing stuff with Tracer and Spiff. Then he turned to the now somewhat anxious Hobbes. Hobbes had, of course, said he'd bet ANYTHING that he could beat Calvin ANYTIME ANYWHERE. Somehow, Calvin had called Hobbes' bluff.  
  
"And where do you plan to fight?" Hobbes said in a tone sounding confident, although false, for anxiety had taken over him. "Where, then?"  
  
"On top of the tallest skyscraper in the city," Calvin answered, sneering up at Hobbes. "We'll fight on the roof, without any weapons, such as your iron claws and my pistol. The winner will toss the loser over the side of the building. Is that clear?"  
  
"That's insane!! When I drop you over the side, you'll die!"  
  
"First of all, Hobbes, I won't be dropped over the side. YOU will. Got it? Good. Second of all, I'll get Ferocious or Stupendous, or maybe even Spiff to catch the loser in mid-air. I'm going to tell the others this stuff." With that Calvin walked away to the others. Hobbes stood there alone; Susie had gone somewhere.  
  
"Jeez," Hobbes thought, "I didn't figure Calvin would catch the bluff! Nevertheless, I will beat him."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Thirty minutes later all of the warriors with the exception of Calvin and Hobbes were standing on the roof of a monumental skyscraper, waiting for the promised "fight." How this fight had started and what all in all brought them here was a mystery to them, somewhat even to Calvin and Hobbes. But the two were going to fight, and all of them knew it.  
  
Stupendous Man and Spiff were arguing over who would catch the loser from the sky, although it was really a simple task for either. Heh, what a fallacy to believe that they could actually behave. Tracer was gazing down at the streets, looking for crime as an excuse to escape watching this pointless match. Susie was sitting on the ledge of the building with Ferocious Feline; Ferocious was staring at Hobbes, who was vigorously stretching for the upcoming fight. He had gained extreme confidence in the match, viewing it as in his patent favor, realizing that Calvin was a human, and even easier: a six year old short boy.  
  
Susie was looking more forcefully at Calvin, who, ironically, had had all his confidence drained from him. He was staring over the ledge down at the streets, wondering what he had got himself into. For anybody but Calvin and Hobbes, and, perhaps, Susie, this seemed like a puny match. It meant nothing. But for the two young warriors, it was as though all matches, all matches between them, were ultimate. When one lost, the victor destroyed their honor and pride. Now that they had joined a group against evil, Calvin and Hobbes contended more severely.  
  
It was near the starting time of the fight. Now everyone, even Tracer, was watching fully, more than what their earlier mood hinted. Calvin and Hobbes stood on the flat roof of the building. The heat may have been what made sweat roll down the two's necks, but it probably wasn't. The tension made the sweat. They stared each other down, not daring to blink or break the intense eye contact. Very slowly, both warriors took an oblong step forward. Then they took another step, then stopped. All was silent; even the noise from the city below ceased. The other five were watching like never before. All of them sat on the ledge of the skyscraper. They nervously awaited the first major sign of action.  
  
Then, all of a sudden, Hobbes made an abrupt leap. It was more like a jump, one might think. It was, to Calvin, like nothing he'd ever seen Hobbes do before. It was all of a majestic jump. It seemed to last hours, though it really was only seconds long. Hobbes surely meant fighting now.  
  
As Hobbes was in the air, he looked down at Calvin. Calvin gave Hobbes an incredulous look, denying that he was very frightened of this tiger jump. Somehow, though, he was valiant in his heart. But to Hobbes, the look Calvin shot was powerful, nothing Hobbes could expect from a short, blonde- haired six-year-old boy like Calvin. But Calvin was no ordinary boy. He was a warrior. The look Calvin generated---The unavoidable stance he stood with- --It made Hobbes as frightened as Calvin was.  
  
Although the time spent in the sky from the jump appeared to extend to infinite time, Hobbes quickly rammed down to the ground. Calvin watched him to the last second, anticipating Hobbes to expect a counterattack. At the last second Calvin rolled to the side and dodged the force and Hobbes' torso slamming hard into the rooftop. Without a second to be caught off guard, Hobbes hopped up shortly and landed a few feet away from Calvin.  
  
"So, Calvin," Hobbes said, "you have become much more agile. I admire this in a warrior."  
  
Calvin suddenly ran at Hobbes swiftly. Velocity gained with his run and he ran faster and faster constantly. He pulled his fist back and prepared for it to come in contact with Hobbes. When the two were about to hit, Hobbes leaped to the side and avoided Calvin. "I see your power in your technique, Hobbes," Calvin said, facing away from Hobbes. "You're better than a whole lot of tigers."  
  
"You too, Calvin, are remarkable. But I have yet to allow you victory." Calvin and Hobbes turned and faced each other. "Over a period of training," Hobbes said, "I developed an attack incredibly powerful. I have yet to test it on anything at all. I call the attack "Therizino." You are my testing object."  
  
"Fight, Hobbes… I want to fight now."  
  
Hobbes immediately rushed at Calvin with his claws out. Calvin beamed at Hobbes as well again, anticipating Hobbes to strike first. Hobbes gained speed and held hid hand out, showing five very long and sharp talon-like claws. They must have been much deadlier than they originally were, for Calvin could hear air rolling off of them.  
  
Then, at the moment of collision, Calvin jumped away. But he was too close to Hobbes when he jumped away, so the slash could've struck him. Yet Calvin felt nothing, and by this he assumed he was unharmed. He turned back to Hobbes, who was standing noticeably still, watching to see if he'd hit Calvin. Calvin, thinking he was untouched, stepped slowly forward.  
  
But before he made much movement, suddenly the pain reached him. He looked to his shoulder to see large amounts of blood in it, and five very deep cuts. He didn't care that he could have been infected, or that his arm could've been a permanently disabled one, but he just stared at the cuts. He lifted his head again only to be punched in his face by Hobbes. The suddenness was overwhelming, but it was nothing like the pain. It was a very, very tough punch, and caused Calvin to think that he'd fall dead unconscious onto the roof, then Hobbes would drop him off the side and regain his pride and proclaim his trounce. But he did not go unconscious; he stood up tall and looked Hobbes in the eye.  
  
Unbelievably fast, quicker than lightning, Hobbes ran at Calvin again. Calvin did not see him coming and was pounded by three mighty kicks to his gut. The pain was sharp and gruesome. Before he fell and hit the ground, Hobbes slashed his face. That signaled Calvin's defeat. Hobbes remorselessly grabbed Calvin from the ground and walked to the ledge.  
  
"You put up a fine fight, Calvin, surviving those attacks was very impressive. But it has to end this way." Hobbes finished speaking, and, with his right arm, held Calvin over the ledge far above the streets. "You fought well, but you still lost." With that Hobbes let go.  
  
Then, before Hobbes had a chance to pull his arm back, Calvin grabbed his arm and hung onto it like a bar. Before Hobbes could react Calvin pushed himself up and flipped over Hobbes, landing in a martial arts stance. With his hand he motioned tauntingly for Hobbes to come to him. Hobbes came toward Calvin with a dark look, thinking he should have already won. But Calvin's look was now fiercer than Hobbes's was. Despite the fact that he was covered in blood, bruised completely, and scarred horribly; Calvin was at his ultimate. He did not attack yet though, but waited for Hobbes to strike. As he did, Hobbes crouched on the ground and pounced Calvin. As he hit, which actually did not hurt Calvin at all, the two erupted in a heated wrestle. It ended with Calvin holding Hobbes in a headlock.  
  
"Give up, Hobbes, before you die!" Calvin yelled as he tightened his grip on Hobbes's neck. Hobbes moaned impatiently and struggled incessantly, attempting to break loose of the hold. He kicked at Calvin, trying to push himself away from him, but Calvin continued to keep his arm around Hobbes's choking neck. Finally, Hobbes broke free, gasping desperately for air.  
  
When Hobbes stood up, Calvin sped toward him, leaped into the sky, and bulleted down with a kick at Hobbes. He landed in Hobbes's gut; the force of the blow was unbearable for Hobbes. He fell to the ground, breathing even more coarsely. Not wishing to create any more harm, Calvin gently picked up Hobbes, walked to the edge, and dropped him.  
  
Stupendous Man immediately flew over the side. He came up quickly, but without Hobbes. Calvin was shocked to see this.  
  
"Hey, aren't you going to catch Hobbes? He'll die!" Calvin said roughly, due to his out-of-breath-ness.  
  
"He is not defeated yet," Stupendous Man said, and flew back to the ledge he was originally seated on. Calvin walked curiously to the edge where he'd dropped Hobbes, only to see Hobbes rock-climbing the side of the building, using his claws. He was only ten feet away from the roof where Calvin stood. Calvin stepped back and prepared for combat.  
  
Hobbes pulled himself up to the rooftop more easily than he expected. He looked at Calvin intensely, eyeing him in a tough way. "So, Calvin, you are mighty. I must honestly confess that when you came a part of this alliance, I did not believe you would be any use. You proved me wrong." Hobbes stopped talking for a moment to gather some air. "Now we will see who is stronger---Man or Feline."  
  
With that Calvin and Hobbes ran at each other simultaneously, each expecting more power now from their opponent. Hobbes, when near Calvin, used his "Therizino" attack. When the razor-sharp claws were about to slice up Calvin, Calvin caught Hobbes's right arm with his left hand. Hobbes immediately threw a punch with his free hand, but Calvin caught the fist. The two struggled back and forth until Hobbes kicked Calvin away. Calvin stepped up thirty feet away from Hobbes. Calvin and Hobbes stared each other dead in the eye. They never broke the eye contact for about the minutes; they just stood still and watched each other.  
  
Then, all of a sudden, Calvin ran at Hobbes. Like so many other times in this fight, Hobbes waited until the last second to dodge him. But this time, before Hobbes could jump or roll away, Calvin landed a punch in his face. It knocked Hobbes about five feet backward. He stood up with a bloody nose like Calvin's. He looked at Calvin faintly, surprised at Calvin's indestructible technique.  
  
Calvin had something in him making him the ultimate of the seven: His faith in Hobbes's reality. His love for the tiger was invincible, and so was his hope; hope that they would never part. This made Calvin the grandest.  
  
Soon after the punch Hobbes crouched on the ground, looking deadlier than ever. He leaped off the ground extremely heavily, making the pounce he was performing more powerful than ever before. Calvin watched Hobbes magnificently jump into the air; his feet pushed off with tremendous force. The grace of Hobbes in the air… It almost hypnotized Calvin so that he could not move. But Calvin hopped away as Hobbes's hands came in contact with the roof. The earth surely shook after this; and if not, the flat cement roof DID crack. But Calvin was not shaken at all, and stood on the roof like every other unimportant time in the match. When Hobbes rose up, Calvin vehemently tackled him. It knocked Hobbes flat onto the hard cement. Calvin continuously punched and kicked Hobbes; Hobbes having no defense against this assault. Eventually, after Hobbes was out cold, Calvin stopped the barrage of attacks.  
  
"Sorry I had to do this, Hobbes," Calvin said, his tone meant it. "Sorry I destroyed your pride." Calvin then picked up Hobbes's furry body and dumped it over the side.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
~1 Week Later~  
  
  
  
"Are you sure you're okay, Hobbes?" Calvin asked. He had asked this about a thousand times for the last week.  
  
"I'm fine, I'm fine already. Sheesh, you don't need to ask me every minute," Hobbes replied. He was in peak medical condition, same with Calvin, and they had ceased to argue.  
  
"Sorry I had to beat you and insult you that way," Calvin apologized.  
  
"Oh, it's fine. It's not the last time it will happen, and the next time won't be from you."  
  
"Still, I shouldn't have accepted your challenge. One of us could've gotten killed!"  
  
"Hey," Hobbes said, "how about a rematch in the Virtual Chamber? Susie just got out of it, and we won't get harmed in there, so how about it?"  
  
"Sure thing!" Calvin said, and the two rushed into it as friends forever.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's note: Okay, here's the deal: The more reviews I get, the more I'll write. So if you want more, then REVIEW! 


	6. A Grand Battle I

It was four weeks after the alien patrol had been temporarily established. Because it was near a month, after which they would no longer watch for any sign of an "invasion", none of them even thought anything would happen. After all, nothing had happened in a while. No crime had been reported in their city since the day Mom-lady and the dozen zargoxes had attacked.  
  
Somehow all of them, especially Hobbes, had been yearning for something to go wrong so they could stop crime again. It was a guilty feeling because it was sort of evil to want crime. But it was also boring to every day train and train and train some more. Hobbes and Calvin would go in the virtual fighting room every day and beat each other up; of course, they couldn't get hurt in there because it was not real, it was just a form of virtual reality. And unfortunately for Hobbes, Calvin had a serious advantage in there with the pistol, and with that and his newfound strength (Even though his strength wasn't enough to defeat Hobbes alone, it and his pistol together were undeniably more powerful than him) he was undefeatable against him (Except for a few rare circumstances).  
  
Susie no longer had a real noticeable longing for dolls, and there was nothing else to do around but train and fight. But even when she actually wished to fight in the training room (The virtual room), Hobbes and Calvin were already in there, and although she commonly argued for her rights to be in there, either Calvin or Hobbes had a more convincing excuse for being in there instead of her.  
  
Ferocious Feline had been having the best time out of the entire team, although he indeed wasn't having a swell time. As you know, his primary capability was eye-lasers, so the whole time he'd been practicing using his limbs in combat, and he was kind of getting the hang of it after being locked up in the building. Now it was like the weight room was his domain.  
  
Tracer wasn't smoking as much now because Stupendous Man hated it and, because he'd been with him long enough, the smoking had gotten to Stupendous and he'd threatened to hurt Tracer if he didn't stop. Like Susie, Stupendous Man wasn't getting much time in the training room, but if he really, really wanted to go in he'd force Calvin and Hobbes out, if you know what I mean. On the other hand Tracer didn't work out at all, and by doing so he became a slight bit lazy.  
  
Spiff was bored because he didn't get to leave the planet at all during this time. His weapons would destroy everything in the vicinity if he shot any one of them, and his rays were what he primarily relied on. Even though seeing the others training would seem convincing for him to train, Spiff was steadfast to his weaponry, and didn't do any training. He just waxed up his firearms and that sort of thing the entire time.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Hobbes."  
  
"What?" he said through the clear glass door of the virtual room.  
  
"Give me a chance in there. You and Calvin have had it the entire day!" I said as he gave me rude look.  
  
"Forget it!" he said back. "The first one in is the last one out!" That made me mad.  
  
"GET OUT THIS INSTANT!!" I barked at him. He gave a sour expression, then moved slowly toward the door without ever taking his eyes off of me.  
  
The door opened. I walked right past him into the room. His face had animosity written all over it, probably because he'd been pinned up in here for a while. Calvin walked out too, but less grumpily--- Heck, he didn't really look angry at all. Susie followed me in; she'd wanted to take a fight with me for a couple days.  
  
The match was quick; a few laser-eye shots and she was down on her knees. How utterly boring. We both exited the room exactly two minutes after entering. There was Tracer, eyeing me in that intimidating way that shot chills through my fur.  
  
"Hey pussycat," he said. He knew that annoyed me. It was all in the way he said it. "What're you doing?" he said once more. Hmmm… The time must be getting to him.  
  
"I'm not doing anything. Go away," I snapped back. He just looked at me blankly for a good moment then tilted his hat forward and walked off. Knowing Susie was probably off in the training room, I decided to walk to the living room with my best friend, Stupendous Man.  
  
It must've driven him thoroughly insane to be cramped in the building doing nothing but eating, drinking, and training. All the adventures we had had together every day allowed us to fly freely around the world, and he was likely stir crazy now because he hadn't even gone outside the building.  
  
"Hey Stupendous!' I greeted him. He just looked up at me in an aggravated way. I don't blame him, especially after weeks of this building.  
  
"Hey," he said kind of heartlessly. "Phone hasn't rung in ages…" he said dully and irrelevantly. I swung around to the police phone line, where a call would project from when they, the police department, spotted trouble. Cobwebs were practically growing on it after being untouched for weeks.  
  
"Don't you feel like a fight in the virtual room?" I asked abruptly. "You know, Calvin and Hobbes are out playing "Calvinball" in the other room right now, and me 'n' Susie just got out…" I carried my voice until it completely dropped. Stupendous didn't reply or even lift his head. He looked so dull and lifeless just tilting his head downward that I'd figured that he was asleep or, if I didn't know better, dead. I continued to watch him a while, then I sort of drifted off in my imagination too.  
  
  
  
  
  
The phone rang. The sound was melodious and beautiful the second it rang, music to my ears. I quickly turned to my side and lunged out for it, wanting to be the first to answer.  
  
Maybe it was adrenaline, or possibly just a reflex, but suddenly Stupendous had leapt from his chair and shot to the phone first. He picked it up excitedly and immediately answered. "Hello?" he said into the end with an unmistakable, pure-joy smile stamped on his face.  
  
He talked for a good long amount of time on it, curling the wire around his finger as he listened. Apparently nobody else in the building had heard it ringing because no one arrived in the room anytime afterwards; not even a shuffling of feet came in the hall parallel to this room. Stupendous was smiling most of the time though the talk, but after about twenty minutes his giddy face died down. After several more minutes, he finally laid the phone down.  
  
"Who was it?" I instantly asked, expecting some sort of robbery or something. I couldn't overhear what he was saying while he had been talking because his back was turned, and he wasn't doing most of the talking anyway.  
  
He looked up at me with a more live face, not as fruitful as I would've hoped, but not coldly. But it was definitely no smile. "That was the chief of the department," Stupendous Man started. I nodded, insinuating for him to continue.  
  
"He mentioned something about odd spacecraft flying overhead the city," he went on, "and he even mentioned them showing hostility by one of the crafts shooting down an airplane."  
  
"What were the crafts?" I inquired.  
  
"Well, I asked the chief for a decent description of the ships. He gave about every adjective he could think of. I mentally matched up the evidence and I believe they were… They were…" He gulped.  
  
"What were they?" I asked anxiously, with sweat now dripping down my furry neck.  
  
He eyed me soberly this time. His expression spelled despair.  
  
"They were zargoxes."  
  
My heart dropped a couple feet into my lungs. My worst fear was coming true: I had been right about that "invasion" four weeks ago. Of course, I could've been happy about winning an argument with Spiff, but a whole fleet of giant freaks' ships attacking the city and the seven of us kind of frightened me. To think that we had actually wanted something to go wrong, just for a taste of action.  
  
"We better inform the others," Stupendous recommended hastily, "they were sighted moving approximately south."  
  
Stupendous ran out the door rather quickly. I followed him as he ordered for me to gather all the others.  
  
  
  
Everyone was outside and ready to go. According to Stupendous, the aliens had been caught moving at 1:00 our direction, and they'd been advancing across the land very quickly. Everyone except me and Stupendous and Susie piled into Spiff's ship. Stupendous and I could fly and there was no room for Susie. Because he needed to get to the zargoxes first (Because he knew more about what had happened), I had to carry Susie on my back the way there.  
  
We all set off. Susie wasn't nearly as heavy as Tracer had been, so hauling her was a breeze. I still fell behind, though, and had to once ask Susie to hold on tighter so I could accelerate. On the way I saw stupendous reach out a radio and talk to Spiff, but the windy made too much noise and they were so far away that I couldn't hear a thing.  
  
After half an hour we arrived together a city engulfed in a large canyon- like valley. Above it was a gargantuan, smooth, and dark cloud. Nah, it was actually very dark. No, it was black.  
  
Suddenly small eerie green lights lit up all around the cloud. It started to shake after the lights had been on for a couple seconds. By then we all knew that it was for sure no cloud.  
  
"The zargox mother ship," Spiff said. I spun to my side to see Spiff hovering in his craft ten feet away, though I have no clue as to how he got that close to me without me knowing. His ship's top was opened up, and now we all were staring at him, waiting for him to say something more. "That's where all the zargox fighter ships come from." He stopped talking, then the head of his ship slowly closed and as it did, and he descended towards the ground, a tiny knoll in front of the city. Stupendous and I followed.  
  
At first I couldn't believe a thing he said. If he were correct, soon that city down in the valley would be swarming with zargoxes. But then suddenly a latch on the bottom on the ship opened up. It was hard to see it, but we could all tell what was happening. In moments the latch was open altogether, and then all of a sudden dozens of zargox fighter ships were flying out of it. They spread across the city in every which direction. Though it was scarcely visible where we were, we all could tell that the ships were now firing rays everywhere. Then, after on a microsecond of the attacking, one of the tall buildings in the city was completely leveled.  
  
Our first instinct was to run in and fight. And that's what we did. Nobody on Spiff's little ship had gotten out of it, so we immediately flew to the city's interior.  
  
  
  
  
  
It was a lot worse in the fray than it had looked from the knoll. Ships everywhere were flying wildly so none of us knew what to do. After a while of attempting to strike one of the moving ships with an eye laser and trying to save civilians who ran franticly throughout the city, Stupendous Man called me and the others back to him and Spiff.  
  
As we all gathered in a circle, Stupendous said, "Spiff has an idea I think we should use." Stupendous moved back, allowing Spiff to speak.  
  
"Okay," Spiff began, "I've studied all kinds of aliens, and I know one thing about zargox fighter ships: They are all powered by the mother ship. If four of us can just stall and defend the city while another three go in the mother ship…" Spiff pointed upward at the huge black ship. "…And destroy its generator. That will deactivate all the ships here."  
  
"Great idea," said Calvin, who hadn't been talking much at all, "but who'll be the four protecting the city, and which three will go inside the mother ship?"  
  
"…Umm, I don't know…Are there any volunteers for going on the mother ship and destroying the generator?" Spiff said. Susie raised her hand and, after a convincing look shot straight at me from her, I was inclined to accept as well, but reluctantly.  
  
"Excellent," Spiff said, "with you two and me, we'll have three to storm the ship. Stupendous, you and Calvin, Hobbes, and Tracer are responsible for holding off the attacking ships until we can shut down the leader. We haven't time to waste. Let's move out!"  
  
  
  
Stupendous, Calvin, Hobbes, and Tracer instantly made their way to the main part of the city while Susie, Spiff, and I flew in the air towards the giant ship. Susie was flying with Spiff this time, giving my shoulders a break. Under me was the entire city in half-ruins, and not even Stupendous had quite arrived at the most hostile part of the city yet. I tried to keep my eyes straight at the latch on the underside of the ship where we were to fly into, not on distractions like screaming civilians down below.  
  
The three of us halted in the ominous sky next to the latch as it opened once more and let out more zargox fighters. They flew past, but we avoided contact and they did not open fire. After the excursion passed, we darted into the ship through the latch before it closed.  
  
We landed on a sturdy alloy of metal floor as we came inside. It was a voluminous room, and just as I had expected it was a hangar with zargox fighter ships being prepared for combat lying beside zargoxes mending or piloting them. As soon as we stood on the ground all the zargoxes' black eyes fell upon us, as if they had some sort of ground-touch sense. Fear fell around my heart and no doubt my comrades'. There were hundreds---Maybe thousands---of ships and seven-foot green macabre aliens fixing their view towards us three. Time had just paused.  
  
Then Spiff made the first move I'd seen in---Oh, say, thirty seconds. He reached in a holster on his side almost invisible from my viewpoint and pulled out his zorcher, setting it on a label reading "deep-fry". He fired the thing aimlessly; accuracy having no point because every which way you turned there was alien scum. The zargoxes replied to this by pulling out odd-shaped weapons and shooting them at us blindly. Some of the zargoxes that were already in the fighters' cockpits even took off inside the hangar and shot at us.  
  
I felt it was time for me to start fighting, so I shut my eyelids closely, almost completely shut, and shot and wide eye-laser beam out in the open, assuming it would hit something. I kept on shooting, having enough energy in eye-lasers to last near infinitely.  
  
Susie had the least advantage in this. Her gun was useless, so many times she would just assist me or Spiff by saying "Watch out!" when a ship almost rammed into either of us. As far as lasers went, we didn't need to be warned because they were being fired so thick that you couldn't see your comrade. I did my best helping Susie on the occasion that she needed my service, but that was uncommon.  
  
Suddenly after about five minutes in the fray I was struck on my side by a laser. At first I felt no pain, but in only time enough for me to notice I'd been hit I felt the burn. Immediately I clamped both hands on the wound, falling to the ground in agony.  
  
I couldn't see Susie or Spiff coming to help, probably because they weren't aware of my injury, because I knew they would risk their life to help of fellow teammate. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I lifted myself off the ground. My hands were bloodstained, burdening my punches. I shot several more eye-lasers while Spiff continued firing the zorcher and Susie continued her warnings until the three of us had defeated all the alien life in the room.  
  
  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man, Calvin, Hobbes, and Tracer finally reached their combat vicinity, the downtown and business parts of the city, where all the attacking was happening. Stupendous Man had slowed his pace along the way, allowing the others to catch up. They all four entered cautiously, and ran to the invasion center of the city.  
  
"Here's our plan," said Tracer, picking his cigarette out of his mouth and tossing it onto a sidewalk. "There are two major streets: King and LiFutte. Calvin, you and Hobbes can search one street. Stupendous here and I will take the other. Since I'm pretty sure you three can't take big alien ships, either notify us of where there going, directions, distance, yatta yatta… or more satisfying would be choice B: Devise some sort of trap. Like… get them to follow you then fake 'em out and get them to run into a building, and, y'know, that sort of thing…"  
  
"Roger!" Hobbes said proudly, almost saluting and embarrassing himself, "can do! It's my specialty!"  
  
"Yeah," Calvin thought, "on the wrong target most of the time."  
  
"Good, good. Now go on down that street…" Tracer pointed to a wide street with craters in it from where lasers were definitely shot into, overturned and half-annihilated cars, and crushed, bloody pedestrians. "Yeah, it's a little dangerous," Tracer said, suspecting one of them would hesitate to search the street because of foreseen danger, "but you're warriors. Good luck." He said then ran off the other direction with Stupendous Man as Calvin held hid finger up to complain. He sighed as they went further away into the opposite street.  
  
"Oh well," he said, turning around to King Street with Hobbes, "we better get started." And they ran into the street ready to battle.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Good work guys," Spiff said as he looked at the damage we'd done to the hangar. Only a few ships remainder untouched, but there were no live zargoxes.  
  
For the first time since we had been in the air I got a decent view of what the fight had done to Spiff and Susie. Some of the blasts had slightly torn his suit and even a bit of it singed his skin. Susie hadn't been fighting much at all as I said earlier, so she'd concentrated on avoiding blasts, allowing her to dodge relatively every blast shot at her.  
  
"Thanks," said Susie to Spiff's compliment.  
  
The pain sprang back on me again. I moaned and covered the wound like before.  
  
"What is it?" asked Spiff as he finally noticed the patent hands over my wound. "What are you covering?"  
  
I removed my hands. Susie gasped, but Spiff looked weird-eyed at me. "Jeez, that's deep. How'd that happen?" he said.  
  
It WAS a pretty big cut, I just noticed. A large chunk of skin had been gashed away. As I thought about it more blood came. I wiped all I could off with my yellow cape, which soon turned red because of the blood. More came out until it was pointless to wipe it off. As for how it happened: Think about it. Hundreds of ray gun shots a second, three of us. I didn't speak out the sarcasm to him, because I was in no shape to say anything wrong, and he likely already knew how it happened anyway.  
  
"I don't think I can fly anymore for now," I said. "Because of the cut."  
  
"Oh, well… I don't you'll need to do that anyway," Spiff replied.  
  
After a brief period of silence, several metal doors on parallel sides of the hangar slammed open. Zargoxes poured out of them quicker than the ships had been coming out of the latch. They all diffused from their swarm and rushed out at us, grabbing ray guns and firing rapidly at us.  
  
We all knew without words that this was too much to handle. I ran the direction that I could see was free of them, which was towards a stable- looking steel door. Tracer followed me and after him Susie. The whole bunch of zargoxes fired as many times as they could as we ran as far away from them as we could.  
  
After running wildly around for a long time to avoid being laser-struck, we found ourselves at the door. It was heavy and all three of us had to push it to open it. It creaked open and as it did we rushed inside and closed it. There was some exotic sort of lock on the other side of the door that only Spiff knew how to use. He locked the door and all of us placed an ear to it to see how close the enemy was.  
  
As far as I can tell (And maybe I was wrong), the zargoxes had stopped chasing us as soon as we had gotten through. My only logic was that they could be shooting rays at the door. But if they were, it wasn't penetrating the door, because it wasn't even moved a bit and none of us could hear sounds of anything on the other side.  
  
Suddenly the door shook immensely, knocking us back. My first assumption was that the zargoxes were ramming the door. Then it happened again, and a few moments afterwards again.  
  
"What's going on?!" Susie shouted as they rammed again.  
  
"I don't think this type of metal will hold up to their tackling force," Spiff stated as they slammed into it again. "We have only one choice. Susie go see what lies at the end of this hall."  
  
She nodded, then ran down the long hallway. The zargoxes rammed again and again as we began to give away to the power. Eventually Susie returned with information written all over her face.  
  
"There's another door waaaaaaay back there," she reported, "but it has some sort of lock I don't understand."  
  
"Leave it to me," Spiff said. I predicted he would say that. You two hold that door back as long as you can." Spiff ran back the way Susie had.  
  
The ramming became harsher. Once the hinges even cracked. Susie was giving in, but she stilled provided some much-needed support.  
  
Spiff returned just in time before my body would've split. He said something about 'decoded' and 'open', but the ramming muffled my hearing partially. Oh well, those words hinted that he'd broken through.  
  
Susie and I released the door simultaneously and ran down the hall like there was no tomorrow. As we let go the zargoxes rammed it one more time, and the door flew off its hinges into the high sky above the narrow hallway. Susie, Spiff, and I reached the door and slammed it behind us before they were halfway there, considering their confusion. Spiff pushed the same sort of odd lock on this door, putting those treacherous zargoxes in the same ordeal for the time being.  
  
  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man and Tracer Bullet ran at maximum speed down the street, not seeing any zargox fighter ships in the trench-like street. It was trench-like because two tall square buildings were always surrounding the two sides of the street, causing it to be a sort of city gulch. This was a sort of advantage against the zargoxes because its narrowness disabled travel for the broad zargox fighter ship.  
  
Most of the time the two heroes encountered non-combat trouble; a house on fire was the usual task. In this event Stupendous Man would fly in and retrieve all the people inside and, because he had the extra time, all valuables including pets while Tracer attempted extinguishing the fire by using the house's fire extinguisher or one of his pieces of equipment.  
  
This invasion also made abandoned homes susceptible to burglary. Tracer took cases like this while Stupendous Man always seemed to have something else to stop or justify.  
  
After an hour of these processes, the duo came upon three aware zargox fighter ships. Both were at little shock to see each other. Fortunately for city safety civilian-wise, there were no people of any sort walking anywhere in a thousand foot radius of where the two side were looking.  
  
Suddenly the zargoxes made their first move. They shot a solid thick ray of light shot at Tracer and Stupendous Man. Both flexibly rolled to the side and countered the attack.  
  
Tracer took a magnum from his vest and shot it three times at the nearby ship. It broke through the window and hit the driver thrice in the head, causing the ship to slowly shift down to its side. It made dull contact with a building, doing no damage to the building itself, but just falling to the ground inactively.  
  
Stupendous Man kicked off the side of a building directly at the center of another ship. He burst through several walls until he came through the zargox fighter ship's opposite side. It fell to the ground heavily, smoke creeping from the two parallel holes.  
  
The remaining ship steered around and shot several rays at Tracer, making it open to attacks from Stupendous Man. Stupendous Man was already timing a punch, and released it as the fighter flew past it dented far through the ship's surface, giving Tracer time to attack. He threw one of his many grenades into the hole. Needless to say it spontaneously exploded a short period of time later.  
  
The two continued following the street, fighting off more zargoxes as their appearance became more common and saving lives and homes as well.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
We found ourselves in an energy room, not vital enough to the ship to be worth destroying, but it provided exemplary hiding places just in case the zargoxes broke through the second door. They hadn't even started ramming it yet, and it wasn't as wide as the last one so fewer zargoxes would be able to ram it if they even did, allowing time to spare. There were tin staircases and giant containers of what looked like oil. Oh, well, it was something like that.  
  
The factory-like room was large and provided many doors in which we could lose the zargoxes when they broke through. But none of us made any hasty decisions.  
  
After a brief exploration of the room, I asked Spiff: "Hey, Spiff, do you know what this is?" I pointed a finger down at one of the effervescent pot- like containers. Spiff stepped over to me and leaned over the railing of the stairs to get a better view.  
  
"It's a flammable liquid chemical substance known as Enomational Fluid, but commonly called by us spacemen "mutagen"," he replied.  
  
"Okay, I didn't need specifics. So it's flammable, eh?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Hey, what if I shot a laser eye beam in there? We could do some big damage!" I recommended. Spiff shook his head.  
  
"No way; it's too risky. Depending on how much heat this chemical gets it could blow up the entire city. Heck, with the heat of a laser eye beam, it could almost level a mountain."  
  
I gulped. Huh, wasn't such a good idea now.  
  
Then I was suddenly struck with an ingenious idea for a plan. I whispered it into Spiff's ears. He whole-heartedly agreed and told the idea to Susie.  
  
  
  
In a couple more minutes the door burst open in the same way the first did, flying erratically in the air. We all three stood in the center among the several doors so the zargoxes couldn't know which one we were aiming to go in. And the horrible beasts came out just as anticipated, wildly and unsteadily. They caught a glimpse of us right as Susie shot her pistol. The bullet went straight in the mutagen, generating a heat that was at a level perfect for the plan. The gigantic pots of the mutagen had a conflagration sending steam flying around, like a super-sized smokescreen. That was when we made our move. Susie, Spiff, and I sped into the diagonal door to our left while the enemy zargoxes were unable to see anything in that part of the room. Fortunately the explosion had killed many of them, and decreasing their number was a great help. Now the zargoxes would have to split into groups and check about seven different doors. We had escaped them… for now…  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Calvin and Hobbes ran down the long and winding King Street without crossing paths with any trouble that could be taken care of for a solid thirty minutes. But after turning a sharp corner they saw three zargox fighter ships flying over the street and shooting rays at innocents.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes planned to use only one strategy: trickery. Hobbes made the first move by shouting taunting phrases at the zargoxes. It caught one fighter's attention even though it couldn't understand English. Naturally the thing fired at Hobbes, but he was too agile and nimble and dodged all the shots. After a while of these antics he leapt onto the hull of another unaware ship. The original on fired a ray gun at Hobbes and accidentally at the other ship, but Hobbes jumped and dodged the fire, and the other zargox fighter ship was terminated.  
  
Calvin took the remaining ship that Hobbes hadn't tampered with. It had already caught sight of Calvin and was currently pursuing him. Because Calvin was a slightly smaller target, the zargox figured that it would be easier to strike him with the ship itself. So it sped up and chased him tighter than before.  
  
Then Calvin found an easily climbable building. He began to climb up the side of it, hoping the zargox would attack him. And it did. It turned to its side, facing the short blonde boy, and beamed toward him. Luckily Calvin jumped off thew building before it hit him, and it smashed its hull right into the side of the building. While it was stuck in the bricks, Calvin aimed his pistol at the weak points on the rear of the ship. He shot several fatal wires and soon after the ship deactivated.  
  
The duo regrouped and the last zargox fighter ship started flying at them. They ran as quick as they could until they arrived at a steep downhill slope in the street. It enhanced their speed, and the fighter ship had to accelerate to try to keep up. They ran down awhile, and, as they neared the bottom, they saw the corner where it abruptly ceased slanting, and in front of the downhill slope was a big, stable monumental building. At the last second Calvin and Hobbes turned the corner, but the ship had gained too much velocity and was already going too fast, needless to say it crashed in the building and fell into pieces.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes continued on King Street, using their sly skill to outdo and overcome more zargox fighters.  
  
  
  
  
  
The hallway seemed never-ending. It was dark and very, very quiet, giving you that horror feeling. The path kept twisting and turning, and sometimes you'd even pass by a very dark spot, which could have been just a plain old really dark spot or something more…  
  
This definitely did not seem like it was the right door to choose in the first place. Once in a while I could even have sworn that I'd heard a zargox cackling in the distance. The only thing illuminating the hall was sometimes if Spiff pulled out a super-electric phaser when turning corners. Therefore I had reason to be truly scared.  
  
Spiff seemed to know what he was doing. Occasionally he needed to feel around to make sure we were touching a safe surface, but that wasn't anything cowardice. Susie held her pistol straight up at all times and peered to her left when making large steps. I just kind of walked and watched.  
  
After turning nearly a million corners we came to a hall with a standard- sized door visible at its end. It was too dark to really tell, but the letters on it looked big and somehow majestic. We opened the door extremely carefully, expecting to be assaulted by a zargox.  
  
Instead we found something even better. Much better. It was the power generator. 


	7. A Grand Battle II

"Oh my…" was the first thing I heard Susie say. She was gazing at awe at the floating spherical generator. It was about twenty feet in the air at about the center of the room. Spiff was already walking toward it, not seeming excited though, like he'd seen it before.  
  
"Typical generator," he said. "Standard A-6 type. I deal with this design all the time."  
  
"Yeah so how do we destroy it?" I asked impatiently.  
  
"We don't," Spiff replied. My heart fell again.  
  
"What do you MEAN we don't?!" I outburst. "We've treaded half this piece of metal just to look for this!"  
  
"Shhh," he whispered, placing a finger over his lips. "We don't want the zargoxes to hear." Spiff paused for a moment, looking around like there was something listening to us. My angry expression deepened. "This generator is made of mutagen-infected titanium. It's virtually indestructible."  
  
"So what do we do?!"  
  
Spiff tore his eyes on me. "Do you know how to pilot a zargox fighter?"  
  
I eyed him back the same way he did to me. Of course I knew how; I'd flown one during the first time this pestilence had come. "Uh huh," I said, "but what help would that do?"  
  
Spiff picked up a gun out of his suit; it was a silent blaster. "Good," Spiff replied after some time thinking. "You and Susie go back into the hangar." At this Spiff aimed his blaster and shot a hole in the wall silently, appearing to know something was there. Sure enough there was a now broken air vent that had curved along the side of the wall. "I'll meet you back there; I'm taking a tiny shortcut. No time to explain. If you get back to the hangar before I do, don't go anywhere. Besides, there shouldn't be any more enemies there." Spiff climbed up the walls easily due to the thick wires on it, which made like steps to climb up. "See ya later, and try not to pick a fight; our time is valuable." With that Spiff disappeared into the small vent.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Stupendous Man and Tracer had destroyed myriad of zargox ships and about four times as many zargoxes. None more had been coming out the latch since Ferocious Feline, Spiff and Susie had destroyed them all. But now there were beams shooting from the mother ship's underside. The beams were almost as much of a nuisance as the zargox fighter ships still there, because they could not be detained. Now Stupendous Man and Tracer were heading toward the very middle of the city, where LiFutte Street led.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes were making a loop on King Street also. They had terminated fewer enemies because they didn't have as much crime skill and neither had superpowers. The road they'd chosen was gradually beginning to carry the duo toward the city's matrix, and they were about to meet up with two comrades.  
  
The two roads the four heroes were on elapsed after a certain point and the four were reaching it. At last Calvin, Hobbes, Tracer Bullet, and Stupendous Man crossed paths and met.  
  
"Hey!" Calvin yelled as Tracer and Stupendous Man came into view. They turned around toward him from their scanning of the sidewalks bordering the street.  
  
"Hello, Calvin," Stupendous Man greeted promptly. "Did you get all the fighters?"  
  
"There weren't many to destroy, but we got 'em all," Hobbes answered for him. "But heaven knows what would have happened if there were more. I'm beat from just the one's I killed."  
  
"We didn't encounter any real trouble along the way, but I'm still hoping Spiff up there can get rid of these things, this pestilence," Tracer stated. "It is an affront to a Private Eye to fight this king of enemy."  
  
"No time to waste; now that the streets connect, we can handle trouble better, but we need to go," said Stupendous Man. He others silently agreed, and they ran down the connected street together.  
  
  
  
  
  
The four of them sped down the street until they came upon the worst of luck; hovering over the broad street were three zargox ships. They were no ordinary fighters; their size was of great proportions. They had three mega- giant cannons on their face; two were bordering one in the center that was about ten-foot thick; the others were five-foot thick.  
  
The four heroes decided they would make the first move. Calvin and Tracer outstretched their hand with a pistol in it and shot a bullet at vital wires on the rear exterior of the fighters while Stupendous Man flew in the air towards the same ship the two were firing at and punched it in the side and Hobbes leapt high up and slashed with his metal claws the same wires the two marksmen had shot at. The ship showed no signs of having taken damage but turned around instead. The other two ships turned around as well. All three fired their triple monumental cannons rapidly and accurately at their four targets.  
  
Stupendous Man was struck with the blast from one of the center cannons, disabling him temporarily though the others escaped. Calvin continued his firing at the important wires, but they were unaffected, probably because they could've been made of mutagen like the mother ship's core. Tracer took out an acid bomb from his vest (Hey, a Private Eye's gotta have one!) and heaved it directly at the hull of the ship. The fighter merely shot a blast back in a physical form of response. Tracer managed to dodge it, although barely, and shot more times at the ships. Hobbes' slashing on the ship's powerful armor was futile; his fierce blows and metal claws couldn't penetrate the thick side of the fighter ship.  
  
The four warriors were in bad enough trouble without the other two fighter ships attacking them, but it got even worse when they started. The three super zargox fighter ships (Name was originated as a quick reference) dealt some serious pain to all of the four warriors just with their jumbo- size cannons, but that wasn't their only weapon. After nominal time, the largest zargox fighter, probably the leader, opened a latch on its underside like the mother ship. A torpedo-shaped missile was lowered being held upside-down, and it was released from the ships with rocket boosters shooting from its tail end. The missile sped toward Stupendous Man; the side of it burning along his waist as it made contact with him. It did not explode having not taken enough pressure to, but the speed and power of it as it swiped Stupendous Man's side knocked him into the air and flat unconscious. The others didn't stop to assist him because they were toast if they tried. The three just kept on attacking the squadron of super zargox fighter ships, an act proving useless while they gave them no damage whatsoever.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Susie and I ran through the door we'd walked in from. It was illuminated now; the electricity must have short-circuited temporarily before when we blew up half of the room with the mutagen. It twisted and turned just like before, plus it was the same length as before, but Susie and I ran more frantically and swiftly than before for fear of something unknown to me.  
  
We gradually made our way to the door at the beginning of the hall. Both of us opened its door carefully, expecting zargoxes in the room. There were none alive but a bunch of corpses lay near a spacious hole in the floor; both the former and latter caused by the mutagen explosion. I could hear zargoxes mumbling---either that or it was just the walls or me---so the two of us high-tailed it out of that room into the hall missing two doors, caused by the zargoxes ramming them off of their hinges.  
  
After running through the very first hall we'd passed through, we came to the scarred up hangar. The sound that immediately caught my ear was the sound of zargoxes growling and lasers shooting. I swerved to my right and saw Spiff with his super frappe-ray in one hand and his Hyper-death handheld ray in the other, shooting both at about fifty zargoxes trying to fit through a door the size of a truck. His suit was covered in dirt and dust from crawling in the air vent.  
  
He turned his head around when he heard us coming in though he continued firing his guns. "Get in the zargox fighter ship!" he ordered hastily. "Get in with Susie; I'll meet you in another in a second!"  
  
I stood there puzzled for a minute, then ran with Susie to one of the undamaged zargox fighter ships. I didn't have time to open any exotic door, so I broke through the window of the zargox fighter ship and went to the controls. Susie hopped in with me, and I got the thing on. Soon the craft was hovering a few feet above the ground, and then I was able to move it around. Spiff kept shooting the onslaught of zargoxes and didn't look like any help was necessary from me, so I flew the ship right past him to the latch. It was sealed shut for some reason, so I aimed one of the cannons in the front of it and fired a ray of some sort several times. The latch burst open, giving plenty of room for me to fly out of the ship.  
  
Once out of the mother ship, I remained by its side. What did Spiff want me to do? He had just mentioned getting in the ship, so I assumed he wanted me to fly out. I steered the ship around and began to move toward the ship's rear, guessing some of the booster rockets and vital parts of the ship would be there. While I was piloting, Susie kept peering out the windows lined along all the walls and sides of the ship. Occasionally she would shout, "Look out!" if she saw a zargox fighter ship pass by. In that case I would aim a cannon at the enemy and fire it, destroying the ship even though it was oblivious that I was their enemy.  
  
Suddenly I saw a red fighter ship behind me. It was tailing our stolen ship close and it was of an unusual color, considering zargox fighter ships are covered in a cosmic green color. I turned the ship around to see what it was. Then I sighted, waving at us through the front window, Spiff.  
  
I withdrew the ship's cannon and watched Spiff as he made hand gestures as to follow him. He accelerated and flew past me as I flew behind him. Eventually we reached the end of the ship.  
  
Spiff's ship extended its cannons and fired them into the huge booster rockets on the end of the mother ship. I fired too; believing that was what he wished for me to do as well. Our two cannons blasted multiple times into the booster cones, causing inconceivable and immeasurable damage.  
  
Suddenly a giant ray blasted Spiff's ship. I steered my ship around to see two zargox fighter ships shooting death-ray at Spiff's fighter. I hadn't time enough to destroy them before Spiff's ship exploded.  
  
As a first instinct I aimed my cannon at the fighter ships and annihilated them. Then I piloted the ship directly under the cloud of smoke. As soon as I did I heard an abrupt "Clank!" In moments Spiff had crawled into my cockpit through the hole I'd generated getting in myself.  
  
"Are you okay?" I inquired immediately as he slumped down into a chair.  
  
"Uh uh," he replied shakily, "I think I fractured my arm and my leg is injured." Indeed it was. Blood was soaking from all of limbs, and even his face was bruised badly.  
  
"Fire the cannons!" Spiff abruptly ordered, pointing faintly at a delicate-looking area between two of the largest booster rocket cones. I instantly thrust my paw into the 'fire' button, and a big, thick ray of light protruded from the giant cannon on my ship's hull and blasted into the ship. It burst straight through the side of the ship, going further inside the interior of the ship every microsecond.  
  
Eventually something happened that I had waited for for hours today: The mother ship began exploding on all its sides and gradually its aerial capability died down.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Calvin and Hobbes were unconscious and bled incalculably. Stupendous Man (Who had re-reached consciousness) and Tracer Bullet were unable to muster onto the ships even a scratch. In this case, one could indeed say all hope was lost.  
  
The three super zargox fighter ships turned to Stupendous Man and Tracer and charged up their all together nine macro cannons. As the blast was about to shoot out, suddenly the energy disappeared. The fighter ships stopped levitating and fell down hard to the ground. The piloting zargoxes smashed on their control bars, puzzled and angry, as their fighter ships slowly deactivated. Without any further delay and a streak of happiness, Stupendous Man, Calvin, Hobbes, and Tracer vanquished the zargoxes. They continued down the street and killed all of the zargoxes. They were all defenseless because all of their ships were deactivated due to the defeat of the mother ship.  
  
  
  
  
  
All seven of us had gathered on that same knoll we'd stood upon hours ago. Instead of watching the mother ship deploy zargox fighter ships and terrorize the city, we were watching the mother ship slowly sink into the horizon as it fell to the ground, exploding all over its sides.  
  
Eventually it met the ground and an ear-splitting earth-shattering conflagration occurred. It must've leveled mountains, 'cause of its immense size, but it was nowhere near urban area when it blew up.  
  
All of my comrades were congratulating me for terminating the mother ship. It was partially Spiff's credit to be deserved, but I decided not to mention it. We came back to the building, worn out and beat up.  
  
Today was certainly no boring, average day for me. A new day brings adventure…  
  
…But for now, rest easy, all us heroes.  
  
  
  
Author's Note: How'd you like it? No, this is not the end of this fic. But it won't be continued if you don't leave a review. It's okay even if it's a flame, just review. 


	8. Is this Love?

Author's note: This was my attempt at a chapter of real romance. Being born with no romance in my personality, I cannot say any of these experiences listed in this chapter have happened to me. Therefore I can't tell romance exactly like it is, only what I see. This is not sappy, so no need to beware upon reading this chapter.  
  
  
  
  
  
Yeah, just another average day for a kid like me. The exhilaration of being in hot pursuit of a criminal was flattering. The city's standard level of crime per day had increased tremendously since the termination of the zargoxes. Just about every other day there was a crime report, taking all seven of us to get it all done at once. Stupendous Man. Was always dealing with the statistics and that sort of thing, like he was the leader or something, but everyone knew (Or should've, at least) that I was leader, commander of the team. But homage had been given to Ferocious for annihilating the mother ship, crowding out Stupendous and me simultaneously.  
  
Eventually I caught up with the crook; he was big but strikingly slow. I jumped onto the back of his head causing him to lose balance and sway back and forth out of control. Finally he collapsed and I shackled him without him making any hindrances or movements toward escape.  
  
I ran as fast as my legs could muster over to Lareneg Street, which led to my house. I stopped on an intersection where I was told to meet by Stupendous. Generally I didn't like to follow orders from him, but he was in a solemn mood today and once when he was in the same mood I'd doused him with a water balloon. Oh brother, did I ever regret it. Therefore I decided to keep it cool between him and me.  
  
I reached the intersection in perfect time. It wasn't very populous today; several crimes had been undertaken along the streets here. Stupendous Man wasn't there for some reason, but I could make out Hobbes and Susie. I rushed to them as soon as I caught eye of them.  
  
"Hey," I said. ,"Stupendous told you two to come too? What a grouch."  
  
"No," Susie replied, "he sent us to look for you. Where on earth have you been, Calvin? You're twenty minutes late, you know!"  
  
I was certainly taken aback. I'd made intense efforts to get here on time already! "What did he call me here for?" I asked Susie, restraining my anger as hard as possible.  
  
"You know that top kidnapper "Le Bon Papa"? Well, the team finally managed to pinpoint where he is. He's holding a girl our age hostage on the top floor of "Fantasy Hotels" about three miles from here. Unfortunately, no ransom was help. He may have even hurt her by now."  
  
A girl eh? Easy enough. She'll scream so loud that we'll probably find her right away.  
  
"Let's go!" shouted Hobbes. "We've wasted enough time already! Move out!" Then we left the intersection together towards the hotel.  
  
  
  
I arrived with my two comrades at the five-story hotel. The desolate street told me that I was dealing with a bad crew of foes, but I took a step of courage and went inside the tall building with Susie and Hobbes.  
  
The first room was covered with bloody bodies of criminals dressed like the Mafia. I noticed that there were neither live hotel attendants nor any live bodies there as I passed through the room. I came to the elevator, but the door was jammed up, obviously where a shootout took place. Luckily there was a continuous flight of vertical stairs. I followed them up to the fifth floor and walked into the room.  
  
There was Tracer and a large robust man with sunglasses of the darkest shade with guns pointed at each other. They walked in a circle around with their opponent always directly on a parallel side.  
  
I decided I was getting bored observing their stupid antics, so I went towards the big guy who was obviously Le Bon Papa and reached for my pistol in its holster. I shot a bullet straight at him, knocking off his big hat.  
  
"What's zis?" he said in a rich French accent. "Bon jour, little le gargon, I zee you a skilled with ze gun, but it is time for you to meet your maker!"  
  
The first part was so much in French I couldn't understand it, especially because French had been my worst school subject, but I caught the last part when he said "It's time to meet your maker!", although barely. Sheesh, they always take the hard way.  
  
I speedily kicked him in the shins before he could draw his gun. He jumped around on one foot for a few seconds, a satisfaction to see that I rarely view.  
  
"Search this room for Jade!" Tracer commanded me. "I'll take care of this guy while you find her; I know she's in this room!"  
  
Jade? Must've been that captured girl I was informed of. I immediately went to scanning the place, ripping off any drawers and blasting open any closet doors that stood in my way. I heard Tracer struggling with that persistent crime leader, but apart from that I could make out a muffled weeping. I couldn't understand where it was coming from because it was soft for the most part, but I persevered and kept searching. Eventually I came to a door that was camouflaged by the wall and therefore perfectly flat, where I was sure the girl was. It was jammed up although there wasn't any external lock, so I punched the thing open; it was apparently made of the least durable materials.  
  
What was in there caught my eyes. It wasn't the nice closet, or the clothes being held in it, but it was the girl, Jade. She was kneeling down and had bent her head upward instantly when I'd opened the door, and when my blue eyes (Assuming that's what color they are) met her gentle jade- greens ones, I was hypnotized. Her long golden hair, shining without even any light, She smiled up at me, and I guess I smiled back, but I was too far in a coma to tell what I was doing. Tracer was calling my name behind me, although my senses didn't pick it up, and I was sure Susie was walleyed and Hobbes was doing something in love mockery behind me, even though I was unable to see anything behind me or hear anything at all. I couldn't tell because I kept staring at her beauty.  
  
"Oh, thank you!" she said in the softest, sweetest, most melodious tone, "thank you so very, very much!" Then she gave me a sharp peck on my cheek and ran off in tears of joy.  
  
I was in shock for a moment as a placed my hand over my right cheek. It was something I never felt before. Hobbes was making kissing noises behind me; I could actually hear now. I stood still, savoring what had just happened. I… I couldn't quite understand what had just happened.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Hobbes, what is love?"  
  
"What are you talking about," Hobbes asked grumpily puzzled. "Calvin, what do you mea---  
  
Suddenly Hobbes eyes darted wide open, and in a second a deep taunting grin had started along his fuzzy face. "Aaaaaaaaah, of coooooouuurrssse…" Hobbes let out another sly expression. He definitely remembered yesterday.  
  
"Knock it off," I said to Hobbes, predicting him to taunt me, "I just want to know. Do you know what love is?"  
  
Hobbes stopped his playing, seeing I was serious. "To tell you the truth, and only the absolute truth, I don't really know." I knew this was hard for Hobbes to say considering how prideful he always was. "But I know who does."  
  
My ears perked up. "Who?" I asked curiously. "who can I ask?"  
  
"Tracer," he said. "He can answer."  
  
Tracer? How could that guy understand love? He liked violence and fighting, not an example of someone who could tell me what it was. Besides, even if he understood love, he wasn't very articulate and couldn't explain it to me, and it subtracted from my favor when I suddenly realized that I wasn't a very good listener. Oh well, I might as well ask.  
  
I walked into the building from the street's sidewalk where Hobbes and I'd been sitting. Tracer wasn't in the virtual room, the training room, or the TV room, but was actually leaning in a chair against the wall.  
  
"Hey Tracer!" I called as I jogged toward him. "I have a question for you."  
  
"Yeah?" he said, spitting out his cigarette.  
  
"Tracer, what is love? Hobbes said you knew."  
  
Tracer gave me a sober glare. "Love, you ask?" he finally said. "That's an odd question. Why would a six year old boy like you want to know what love is?"  
  
"Ummm…" I stammered. "Well, the other day, I… uhh…"  
  
"You mean Jade?" he said. I gulped. Had he seen her kiss me yesterday? I blushed in a deep crimson hue, but he wasn't looking at me and didn't notice. "You mean you're in love with Jade?"  
  
My heart was traumatized when he finished talking. "…Y-yes…" I said with a big sigh.  
  
Tracer let out a smile. The way it looked told me of a cordial expressing he was managing to show. "You're a little young for love," he remarked, "but… it happens to all us guys sooner or later. One day, even if you hate girls like you do, you'll find someone who is just… just… the one."  
  
"The one?"  
  
"Yes, the one. No matter what she looks like, deformed or beautiful, you will love her. I could tell by your look that you were in love with her."  
  
I was in unbelievably enormous shock. Irony kicked in, considering that I had hated girls all my life and now I was in love with one at the earliest of ages. "What do I do about it?" I asked insecurely.  
  
"You're too young to date, and even that would be jumping ahead because you don't even know her, so just wait until an opportunity arises, okay, kid?" Tracer shot me a confirming wink. I was happier and less confused now, but still puzzled. Anyway, after that I went outside with Hobbes and talked to him for a bit.  
  
  
  
  
  
~1 Day Later~  
  
  
  
  
  
Another day, another crime. Or at least that's how this day was shaping up. I was chasing after a criminal again today, running at top speed and clearly showing an advantage in the pursuit because I was gaining on him. Plus, he was just another big fat guy, and we all know how fast they run  
  
As I homed in on him, specifically when I was a couple feet away, I leapt up to tackle him. I landed on his head, causing him to stagger and, in only a few seconds, fall. I shoved my handcuffs out of a jacket pocket and was just about to shackle the crook, when something caught my eye from across the street.  
  
It was Jade. She was like a magnet to my eyes, and her sight like before hypnotized me. I just couldn't stop my view from following her path, until she had completely left the part of the sidewalk I could see.  
  
The criminal had by now escaped, which was something Stupendous would not be happy to hear. I ran as fast as I could to find the crook if he was still out in the open, but I'm willing to bet he found refuge already. I scurried home, figuring Stupendous didn't HAVE to know.  
  
  
  
  
  
Fortunately, he never discovered my little mistake. Fact is, Stupendous never knew about that guy anyway; I'd just seen him commit a theft by stealing a---Oh, say, fifty buck jewel. I found him anyway a day or so later again and arrested him; he was distinguishable from all the other people in the city because of a giant tattoo of "EWF" on his forehead. Got the jewel back, yatta yatta.  
  
But something still haunted me; Jade. I couldn't stop thinking about her, and if I didn't talk to her my mind would surely burst. I talked to Hobbes one day while watching some TV shows in the living room.  
  
"Hobbes," I said abruptly, "I… I think I'm in love."  
  
It took him a second, but then he turned his head around at me "What?" he spoke unclearly, not having heard what I said.  
  
"I think I'm in love, Hobbes."  
  
He scratched his head. "Really?" he said without teasing me at all.  
  
"Yes. Jade---I love being near her, and I'm hypnotized by her sight… and just, you know… that sort of thing."  
  
Hobbes just sat there pondering for a minute. "I don't know," he answered finally, "I really… don't know."  
  
I sighed. "I understand," I said, then picked myself up and walked out of the room.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's note: Yes, it does end very abruptly. I won't continue this chapter in the next chapter, but later in this fanfic Calvin will grow older, old enough to date. So far no real true romance, or better put, love, has been displayed here, but it will come. Be patient. 


	9. Space Kids

"Spiff?"  
  
"Yeah?" I said to the short little blonde kid as he approached me.  
  
"What's it like flying to other galaxies and planets and stuff?" Calvin asked me.  
  
"What's it like, huh?"  
  
I tilted my head back for a moment and reminisced of how I'd been nearly killed several times by naggons, zokks, and recently zargoxes. I recalled my spacecraft having to be repaired every time I was even a hundred thousand miles away from planets just because of hostile species. I thought of how I was constantly being injured by aliens the years before I joined these guys' team when they saved my life once with the naggons. "Oh, you know. Same old, same old."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah, not that dangerous. Hara-kiri's the only thing that could kill you out in space."  
  
"Oh… Okay." The kid stared into my eyes a couple more minutes, giving me an insecure feeling, then walked of into an alternate room in the building after saying, "Thanks."  
  
I had no idea what he asked me that for, but I decided it wasn't important, and went back to polishing my death-rays. Little kids, they can be so predictable and confusing at the same time.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
At about the same time the next day, I watched Calvin step forward to me once more. He had a question on his face; I could tell.  
  
"Spiff?" he said, and instantly after, "I was wondering…"  
  
"Yeah?" I said, expecting something about space.  
  
"Hobbes and I were discussing it last night, and uh… W-would it be okay with you if you could fly us to another planet, like the ones you used to tell stories of?"  
  
I raised one eyebrow real high. Sheesh, that kid comes up with the weirdest questions at the most unpalatable times. I considered his request for a minute, then replied. "…Hmmm… Possibly… Just maybe… Perhaps so."  
  
I broad smile formed across the lightning-struck hair kid's lips. It was recognizable to any of my comrades or me as a sign of certainty in the boy even though no decisions had been made. As far as Calvin goes, all of his action must be specifically noted. This is because once he had an ever so slightly devious smile and minutes after it was seen, he doused Stupendous with a water balloon. I'm telling you, precautions must be made when dealing with a mischievous kid such as Calvin.  
  
"Don't get hasty," I advised Calvin before he started freaking out happily to an extent where he couldn't be controlled. "I cannot guarantee anything. Don't get your hopes high, 'cause they could crash."  
  
His expression died down a little bit, but he was still smiling broadly like always when something went his way. "Look," I said, "I'll tell you tomorrow. Now, I think I hear Tracer calling your name, so why don't you run along?"  
  
"Really?!" the gullible kid said, then ran off in the direction I pointed to where Tracer was "calling" Calvin.  
  
I spent the remainder of the day pondering over my decisions on Calvin's request for space travel; of course, that wasn't very long, for it was but four hours 'till perfect dark and I would have much thinking to do. If I agreed, I would need many supplies and would have to give instruction to an incompetent child. Nah, it was impossible. The trip simply could not be done.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I heard the door creak open behind me slowly, giving me an ominous feeling because it was early in the morning and the takeoff bay was black when shut due to a lack of windows. Fortunately, it was only Calvin. Or in one perspective, you could say 'unfortunately'.  
  
"What are you doing?" Calvin inquired primitively, flicking on the lights to the room. It was almost blinding for me because I'd been in solid darkness for hours, and I shielded my eyes involuntarily.  
  
"Get in the ship," I ordered Calvin abruptly. "No questions. Just get in and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING." I picked two last masks out of my supply box and leapt into the cockpit with Calvin.  
  
"What's going on?" He disobediently inquired. I looked at him sternly.  
  
"I said no questions, but if you must know, we are going into space, precisely to planet Varko N-Z7X."  
  
It took a moment for Calvin to react, but when it struck his brain, he was ecstatic and overjoyed. I restrained him before he went too wild, although it was an arduous task even for a hero, and set some rules clear with the stir-crazy boy.  
  
"Okay, Calvin," I started, "there are a few rules I need you to listen to for our little expedition. They are:  
  
1: DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ON MY SHIP unless I have given precise orders to.  
  
2: WHATEVER I tell you to do, DO IT AS I SAY.  
  
And 3…"  
  
"Where are the others?" Calvin interrupted.  
  
"They aren't coming," I answered strictly. "I told Ferocious that we'd be going, and he told Stupendous, so you're allowed to go. That is, IF you cooperate."  
  
"What about Hobbes? Can't I bring Hobbes?!"  
  
"You don't need him, and besides, he would take up too much spa-  
  
"I WANNA BRING HOBBES!!"  
  
"Alright, alright," I agreed after his outburst, "Hobbes will come. Hurry and go get him; it will take all day to get to Varko."  
  
Calvin sprang out of the ship at this and ran up to his room. Each of us had a personalized room in the building, but Calvin shared his with his tiger Hobbes. The rooms were ideal for their users; Calvin's was equipped with cable television, mine with famous weaponry, Susie's with---I don't know, I'm not a six-year old girl, but I think she has some interest in pocket knives (Weird, huh?)---And so on.  
  
Calvin arrived back with Hobbes leaping all around next to him. They were incomprehensibly happy and, due to some childish liking of the unknown adrenaline, hyper. Hobbes ran into the ship with Calvin behind him because he was slower than Hobbes was and both tried to fit themselves retro my seat. It was going to be a tight fit and all of us were going to be a little uncomfortable the whole trip, but we would manage. I hopped back in with the two after re-checking the craft; having used my spare time while Calvin had temporarily left.  
  
"Here, put these on," I said, handing two pairs of my space glasses to Calvin and Hobbes. They looked oddly at them for a second and were hesitant to accept them.  
  
"What are these?" Calvin inquired upon holding them.  
  
"Anti-matter protection goggles," I explained. "You have to have them on for travel in oxygen-less mass or your body will disintegrate. When you put these on like sunglasses, it coats your body with a thick, invisible layer of imperishable oxygen. If you'd have paid more attention during school, maybe you'd have known how important an oxygen-filled environment is for the sustaining of your body structure."  
  
Calvin blinked a couple times and continued staring.  
  
"Look," I said impatiently, "just put them on!"  
  
They followed my instructions perfectly, though not understanding what it would do. "Once we get out of the atmosphere, you cannot take those goggles off. Doing so is fatal," I stated. "One more thing. I have a couple suits like mine; the Council of Space Warriors suggests that all spacemen to have these on at all times on foreign worlds. Upon encountering hostility, these will reduce any pain and damage you take by 75%. It also neutralizes heat waves, so you won't freeze or burn to death on non-earth planets."  
  
"Wow…" both said in awe.  
  
"Put them on over your shirt. You can just put it on, kitty."  
  
Hobbes growled at me for that comment, but put it on anyway. After both had all their equipment on, they looked awkward. In fact, Calvin looked almost identical to me. Same glasses, same suit, same hair… Definitely.  
  
"Okay, guys, just hold onto anything back there solid on the ground of the ship with no buttons on it, 'cause when we take off it could get wild. Ready?"  
  
The two nodded. The ship's cockpit locked shut and the booster rockets began to ignite. The giant bay door opened, and with a loud "Whoosh!" we were off in the air.  
  
  
  
After several excruciating minutes of elbows and knees being jabbed at me due to a serious lack of space, we made it above the clouds. All Calvin could do was talk and talk and talk, which was riling me up. Finally the ship reached an altitude which limited oxygen due to my craft's size, disabling Calvin's jabbering for sake of air.  
  
I checked to see if everyone was wearing his proper equipment. They both were. "Okay, Calvin, Hobbes, in order to shorten the length of our trip, I am going to boost this contraption into hyper speed. I would advise you to hold on tight, even tighter than before." I flipped a switch reading "hyper speed" over three reading "super speed, high speed, standard speed" in order going down. I held the acceleration stick forward and we started to gain speed. Eventually we were moving more than twice our original speed, and gradually we burst through the atmosphere in the deep unknown we all call 'space'.  
  
Calvin looked the transparent cockpit latch in awe, having never truly been in space ever. I was a little astonished at its beauty because it was two months since I explored this near-being vacuum.  
  
"Wow…" Calvin marveled. "Look, Hobbes, I'm the first kid in space!"  
  
"Yeah!" he answered, "and I'm the first tiger!"  
  
They laughed together merrily for a few seconds. Both of them were wrong; I had actually been the first kid in space years ago, and an intelligent tiger (Like Hobbes, only female) had gone on a space expedition as a guinea pig testing object; named Serena after a philosopher like Hobbes was. But I didn't dare tell them this for sake of destroying their happiness for the time being.  
  
"See that?" I said, pointing my finger towards a bright green planet. Calvin and Hobbes silenced and looked where I was pointing. "That is Varko N-Z7X. It's not forest-land though it may appear so from this distance, but is barren; the color is due to the substance it is made of."  
  
I sped the ship up and shot closer to the land.  
  
"Remember, Calvin and Hobbes, you could die if you take the mask off. Don't do it."  
  
The both gave looks of horror like they hadn't been listening the first time I instructed them. But they both tightened the strap on the goggles' backs, showing their concern about keeping them on, and got ready to get out of the ship.  
  
We were coming very close to the planet's surface. I let out my machine's wheels in time to cushion the landing to the extent that we were all safe. But they, the wheels, were bruised a lot, specifically too much, and they needed to be repaired before we'd be able to get off. But considering the expression Calvin had glued on his face, it didn't look like we wanted to leave anytime soon.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Susie skipped along the rug all the way through the building, looking for Ferocious Feline. After a long search, she discovered him slouched in a comfortable armchair. Instantly she asked him, "Hey, Ferocious, where are Calvin 'n' Hobbes?"  
  
Ferocious Feline turned his head and sat up in the chair. "Ummm… Spiff took them on a trip to outer space 'cause Calvin begged him to."  
  
"And they didn't invite me?!"  
  
"When I came to you and asked if you want to come when Spiff said where he was going, you said 'No thanks, it would be boring'!"  
  
"I must've not been listening, because that time I thought you asked me if I wanted to help you make breakfast."  
  
"Oh… Well, sorry, but maybe Spiff will take you another time, okay?"  
  
"Okay," Susie said less depressingly, and thought, "Man, Calvin ALWAYS gets to do fun stuff. Last time I had any real action was when the zargoxes attacked!"  
  
"Hey… Susie?" Ferocious Feline said. She broke from her thought and reeled around at him. "I was told to take a city patrol by Stupendous," Ferocious Feline continued, "I have to leave, but if he doesn't arrive back here in thirty minutes, call me, because something may have happened. You do know how to use a radio, right?"  
  
"Of course I do!" Susie exclaimed exasperatedly, "honestly, sometimes you doubt my skill too much."  
  
"Sorry. See ya!" And with that Ferocious Feline flew rapidly out the building's door.  
  
  
  
  
  
Calvin set his foot outside the ship warily for fear of the unknown. I told him that everything was all right, but he didn't listen. After what seemed an eternity of him gradually crawling from the cockpit on to the ground, he kept on the ship by clutching the bar extending to the landing wheels. I finally said, "Oh, just let go!" and he did.  
  
For the first time, Calvin learned the fun of minus gravity. His first step sent him up into the black skies about forty feet. He slowly fell downward while screaming in joy.  
  
Hobbes came out with Calvin and followed the identical pattern, but when he jumped he went twice as high as Calvin did. It obviously upset him that Hobbes was jumping higher, so he tried to out-jump him, and soon it turned into a fun contest between the two of them.  
  
"Okay, you two," I interrupted during their bouncing. "Where do you want to go?"  
  
The both landed in confusion. "What do you mean?" they asked simultaneously.  
  
"There are several non-related sections of this planet's terrain. The Smooth Slope part is over there." I pointed beyond a large barren mountain, which Calvin looked at. "There's also—  
  
"Ooh! Ooh!" Calvin said immediately, "we wanna go to the slopes! We do! We do!"  
  
I thought for a second, then said, "Sure." The two comrades of mine hopped into the air happily, lasting a long time due to the natural size of their bound. "Anything you want from my ship for the area?"  
  
"Do you have any toboggan-shaped things in it?" Hobbes asked. I scratched my head again.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well, do you just have one?"  
  
"Uhhh… Yeah, from the snow planet Holar. You get a chance to toboggan all you want there." I pointed to a small compartment on the ship's hull. Calvin ran to it and opened it up. He was shock-stricken to see a pile of plain old capsules filling up the space inside.  
  
"Where's the sled?!" Calvin asked disappointedly.  
  
"Don't worry; it's here." I took one of the capsules marked 'Holar' from the compartment and pressed a button from the top. It burst apart, and out fell a flame-thrower (I had used this on Holar to melt chunk of ice. I didn't want Calvin to see it, because of his flame-thrower obsession; maybe he was a pyromaniac. I concealed in back in a capsule soon after it fell out because of his fire liking), some earmuffs, a bunch of other freeze- protection equipment, and finally, a toboggan.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes instantly grabbed the toboggan and started jumping their way to the slopes. It was a short trip there due again to the lesser gravity. Along the way I acted like a tour guide and showed the two of them several uncommon geographical happenstances, but they were likely not paying attention.  
  
We arrived at the slopes region in no time at all, where Calvin and Hobbes quickly took to climbing the mountainsides. It was like several semi- sphere-shaped valleys that were perfectly smooth. I knew at once why Calvin and Hobbes had wanted the toboggan.  
  
They had quite a fun time. First the duo hopped on several tiny not smooth rocks on the rocky walls to reach the top, then they tobogganed down the slopes at supreme speed. I had a great time by just observing their antics, watching them fly down the sides of the canyons. The sounds of their yelling in glee were echoed throughout the entire region. Eventually, after speculating them sliding down the slopes for a couple hours (Time flies when you're having fun, or at least watching it), I decided to explore remote parts of that region. I went past Calvin and Hobbes and into the black horizon, where I found something I knew Calvin and Hobbes would like. I instantly rushed back to them.  
  
I caught Calvin and Hobbes before they fell down a slope again. "Hey," I said, "you want to see something really cool?"  
  
"Okay!" they agreed. I led them right to where I had been.  
  
  
  
  
  
Both of them gazed at it in awe, then tore across the rock plains toward it. What I had found was a super-high slope. But that wasn't all; at the near-to bottom of this slope was a giant loop like on a roller coaster. It went very high up then fell back down.  
  
But that wasn't all either. After going through the loop, they were automatically propelled up a diagonal slope going upward. There was no end to this slope, though, they kept going until they flew off the side of it far up in the air-less sky.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes tried it out, and it happened just like I'd thought. After the loop they were rocketed into the sky, and they landed hard on the ground after a minute of being aerial. They weren't daunted, though, and did it again and again and again. I watched again too as they did.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The radio beeped near Stupendous Man. He darted for it involuntarily and answered it.  
  
"Hello?" he spoke.  
  
"Oh, thank goodness it's you!" a relieved Ferocious Feline said, "listen, I was on patrol, and, while near the military weapons museum, my radar came on. It pointed out that somewhere in the vicinity of the museum one of the weapons is active."  
  
"What?!" Stupendous Man exclaimed, "well, what else?!"  
  
"The worst part is that my radar detected nuclear activity, so it's likely to be a bomb." Ferocious Feline paused a moment, apparently out of breath from talking so fast. "Listen, bring Susie and Tracer with you."  
  
"Who activated the bomb?" Stupendous Man asked.  
  
"Well, I'm not sure, but I'm aiming toward the Crab Teacher having done it," Ferocious Feline responded.  
  
"The Crab Teacher?!" Stupendous Man yelled out, "I haven't dealt with her in years!"  
  
"You have to go now!" Ferocious impatiently ordered, "it's a timed bomb, and the nuclear power inside it is magnifying right this second!"  
  
Stupendous man immediately put the phone down and ran to get the other two. The trio speedily raced to the scene of the crime.  
  
  
  
  
  
I continued watching Calvin and Hobbes dangerously play around for another two hours. Like I said before, times flies.  
  
I heard my radio beep. It was louder because of the perfect sereneness of space. Even the two of Calvin and Hobbes rolling down the canyon's side couldn't break that calmness. After the suddenness wore off, I picked the radio and answered it. "Hello?"  
  
"Spiff? Good, good. This is Ferocious Feline. There's been an accident and we need you at Earth at once!"  
  
"What?! What happened?"  
  
"A bomb is set to explode and we don't know where to find it! No time to waste on further details! Just get Calvin and Hobbes and hurry!" Then Ferocious turned off the radio without even saying 'Goodbye'.  
  
I turned my radio off and sprang to my feet in despair. Then I jumped over to the loop where Calvin and Hobbes were, gathering them up, then we bounded back toward my spacecraft.  
  
We remained leaping across the landscape for thirty minutes, tracing our trail back to my red spaceship. Finally we fell upon the plain where it was seated, but around it was what I feared encountering: aliens. Big ugly ones, too.  
  
Until now, I had yet to ever encounter aliens on this planet. Heck, I didn't even know that they existed here. I'd explored Varko N-Z7X once before, but I never crossed paths with alternate life forms while on it. Anyway, there they were, five aliens surrounding my ship, nothing I could do about it.  
  
Then they caught sight of us, the worst part of all. I was hoping we could surprise attack, but that was impossible now. We wouldn't be able to get to the bomb. In fact, we probably wouldn't escape AT ALL. I didn't have any weapons handy except for a tiny (Microscopic, almost) flame-thrower. It never could even harm a baby, and besides, there was no oxygen in space so it couldn't survive. My mind was racing for something to do, especially when Calvin and Hobbes were a few hundred times more outright scared than I was.  
  
The aliens made the first move. The five freaks ran at me with all the energy their tentacle-legs could muster. It proved to be a mistake in our favor, because 1) they ran slower, 2) they couldn't jump due to their size and tentacles (Tentacles being unsuitable for jumping for an obvious reason), enabling us to jump right over them, and 3) they came in a cluster, so if we avoided one we avoided them all.  
  
I whispered instructions to Calvin and Hobbes, and they nodded their heads hastily. We started to run, gaining momentum, then, when we were about to collide with the aliens, we pushed off the ground as hard as we could and dodged 'em by a long shot. They were shocked and tried to stop, but we were already making our way to the ship. The three of us crammed in and set off from the planet at maximum speed, hoping to get to Earth before it was too late.  
  
  
  
  
  
Ferocious Feline wasted no time circling around waiting for the other three to come. He was already digging through the museum, scrutinizing any weapon that even remotely resembled a bomb. He was annoyed because of the valuable time it took scavenging the war-house, and partially because of the ridiculous amount of time it was taking for his fellow warriors to arrive.  
  
The radar he was carrying indicated that he was very close to an active nuclear energy source. He dug in the piles of bombs more rapidly, and finally he came to a rectangular prism-shaped ticking metal box. The radar was almost screeching here, so he had reason to suspect that it was the explosive.  
  
Ferocious Feline began closing his eyelids slightly to power an eye- laser. But before he gathered enough power, an unknown force pounded him in the back. He was knocked clear through several bombs (Unfortunately not the active one) until his head hit the wall, breaking his flight. After a minute's inactivity (Boy, I use that word a lot), Ferocious Feline pushed his head away from the wreckage and turned the bloody thing 'round where he saw who'd punched him. For a moment Ferocious was incredulous to believe it, because it was whom he'd least expected…  
  
  
  
Stupendous came flying to the museum at top speed. He hadn't heard any conflagration yet, so expectations of it weren't necessary. He halted at last at the door of the museum with Tracer and Susie narrowly keeping up, apt to be the cause of the delay. They ran through the broken doors of the museum. By now Stupendous Man had gleaned that a fight had taken place. And so was he correct.  
  
At the back of the museum (Visible from the doorway due to the lack of shelves and weapons in the way) Stupendous Man, Susie, and Tracer could well see a battle taking place, though it was clearly one-sided. Annoying Girl was releasing fists of fury on Ferocious, who, because of his weakened state, could not sustain the onslaught and only could occasionally push Annoying Girl away by means of laser eyes. But she was getting more fight into Ferocious, and he was dropping blood along the hard floor. Finally he fell to his knees and collapsed.  
  
Annoying Girl twisted her head around as Ferocious staggered to the floor. "Stupendous," she hissed. "I knew I could get you here…"  
  
"Shoot," he thought in mental response. "Another trap. I'll have to act quickly."  
  
Without arousing any of Annoying Girl's attention by noticeable movement, Stupendous Man moved his head delicately around to Tracer. "I'll fend off her," he whispered, "but you need to get Ferocious's radar and find the bomb!" Stupendous Man pointed to the small radar in Ferocious Feline's palm. Tracer didn't make any notions toward running for it, for fear of being pounded by Annoying Girl. Stupendous Man whispered orders to Susie silently to go out the door band guard it, checking to see if Spiff arrives anytime during the battle soon to ensue or if anyone else attempts to penetrate into the museum.  
  
"So, Annoying Girl," Stupendous Man started, glaring at her roughly. "You've managed to tick me off once again."  
  
"If I must, the entire city will go down with all of us in it. I want to kill you, Stupendous, for all those years of torment I undertook from losing to you!" Annoying Girl spat back.  
  
"It's a fight you want, huh? Well, come and get!" Stupendous Man said, then burst off the ground with great speed, darting toward Annoying Girl with his fists clenched. She grinned, then rocketed away with the same force. The two rivals clashed in mid-air and began punching and kicking and smashing the other's head.  
  
This gave Tracer and Susie time to do their duties. Susie dashed out the museum door with her gun loaded and in hand, while Tracer ran to Ferocious Feline and snatched the radar out of his hand, ignoring his unconsciousness. He observed the radar for a moment, seeing approximately how close the bomb was. Since Ferocious was near the weapon when he'd been assaulted, it wasn't long before Tracer uncovered it.  
  
Stupendous Man and Annoying Girl remained fighting swiftly for several long minutes. The battling went steady for a while until Stupendous Man landed the first real blow, a knee right in her stomach. The blow knocked her far enough back that Stupendous Man could prepare an attack in time before pelted by her. First he floated back to a wall of the building, bending his legs back as if he were to push off of it, then he extended both arms forward with fists of his hands. Before Annoying Girl could retaliate the previous blow, he shot off the wall and collided into her with colossal power, knocking through several exhibits of missiles hanging by chains from the ceiling.  
  
After locating the bomb, Tracer went to work salvaging through multiple wires along the interior of the bomb. He constantly considered which wire to cut, for fear of mistaking the right wire for the wrong one and snapping it, causing the thing to explode. After a long consideration, he finally cut one wire. It recoiled after being cut, but no sparks flew. The radar silenced, signaling the deactivation of the bomb.  
  
"Hey Stupendous!" he yelled, seeing Stupendous Man had a second to talk. "I have to bomb off!" Stupendous Man gave him the thumbs up, then spun around.  
  
Stupendous Man wheeled around in just enough time to avoid a hit from Annoying Girl. Her kick flew past him into the wall, breaking off chunks of concrete. She didn't flinch at all, though, and turned around at Stupendous Man, releasing a barrage of attacks at him. He blocked them all via limbs but was moved back and eventually pinned against the side of the museum. Annoying Girl landed one good straight punch in his face, knocking his head through layers of cement and all the possible blood out of his nose. He fell to the ground, completely motionless for the time being. Annoying Girl chose Tracer as her next target, and moved stealthily towards him.  
  
Fortunately for Tracer, he had sighted the sneak-up several feet away. He took his pistol out and shot as accurately as possible, almost striking Annoying Girl many times. Although the shots never hit her, they kept her away for the time being, until Tracer ran clear out of bullets. Annoying Girl knock him smack dab in the center of his face, where he fell to the cold floor lifelessly.  
  
After eliminating two of her problems, Annoying Girl slowly left the premises. She came out the door, limping because of severe injuries, only to be met by Susie.  
  
Susie had just turned around, and was equally surprised to see Annoying Girl right there. Without a word or any notion toward interaction with the opponent, Susie withdrew her gun and fired it like a maniac.  
  
Annoying Girl couldn't fly well because of the pain, but she fought efficiently enough to beat Susie. After terminating her pistol and throwing many hard kicks and fists, Annoying Girl had wiped out Susie just like the other two.  
  
As she was about to escape the confines of the city after her scheme had failed, the now active Stupendous Man confronted Annoying Girl. He moved erratically like he'd been shot. But made his way relatively quickly to Annoying Girl.  
  
"Nobody gets outta here safe after annihilating half a museum and hurting friends of mine," Stupendous Man muttered angrily under his breath, coughing occasionally from the blow he took.  
  
Soundlessly the two super-powered warriors arose from the ground, levitating feet above it, and took their stances. They abruptly tore forth at each other, attacking just as rapidly as before. And like before, Stupendous Man landed the strike that really counted first. Annoying Girl was knocked directly up into the sky. "I honestly thought you'd be more of a challenge and would've concocted a scheme with undoubted success," Stupendous Man smirked, apparently revived from his pain, "but instead you give me a waste of valuable time. Soon the others will return from their temporary unconsciousness, and you will be arrested. But resist, and you will be annihilated. Now, just calmly put your hands to your head and slowly float to the ground. Don't make any sudden movements…"  
  
"Ha! I haven't unleashed half my power… Arrest THIS!" Annoying Girl cackled out loud, then grabbed a small ovular container from her belt. As she pushed a button on it, the container spontaneously rearranged its structure until it was shaped like large handheld ray gun.  
  
Stupendous Man instantly recognized it. The weapon was an exhibit in the museum of military weapons. It was historically induced due to its use in the Battle of the Celestial, when several species of aliens invaded Earth. The ray gun was one of the primary munitions chosen in the fight, serving well by terminated a high percent of the alien forces. "Where did you find that?!" Stupendous shouted upon seeing it, knowing that a weapon of that power would normally be hidden deep in the museum for safety reasons.  
  
"I must say, the guards sure do a lousy job of hiding stuff." Annoying Girl laughed wickedly again, then pulled a switch on the head of the gun.  
  
A thick ray (6 to 7 feet in diameter) shot from the peak of the ray's cannon. It moved too fast to see, and struck Stupendous Man without him even knowing 'till he felt the agonizing pain. The beam singed at his skin as it tore against him, causing him to scream as chunks of his epidermis disintegrated in the energy ray. He screamed, but it couldn't be heard through noisy humming of the ray. Finally Annoying Girl turned the activation switch back, stopping the ray. Stupendous Man fell to the ground, burned and scraped and scarred for life.  
  
"Huh, your predecessors were even tougher than you…" the villain muttered as she lowered herself to t6he streets, preparing to completely destroy Stupendous Man.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
We broke through the atmosphere with ease due to the velocity my ship had gained by gravity's pull. The craft busted through several clouds before we started to see the green of our state. We were ready to combat our foe and rid of the bomb, so I had my rays on, Calvin had his gun loaded, and Hobbes had his metal claws on his wrist. We came to our city according to plan and approached the museum Ferocious had spoke of.  
  
As I slowed my spaceship down, I saw a figure in the distance. Was that… Stupendous Man? Same hood, same cape… No, the person had maroon color on both apparel. Then I realized who it was.  
  
Stupendous Man was lying on the pavement on the street more than half- dead, but still alive in some way I can't tell. I gave orders to Hobbes and Calvin, then turned around and piloted faster and closer toward Annoying Girl.  
  
Upon my signal, both Calvin and Hobbes leapt out of the cockpit as I opened the top and landed on the ground. Annoying Girl had already seen me coming, and had extended some sort of gun-shaped weapon pointed at the duo. By instinct I shot a small ray at the weapon, hitting it through the center and destroying it.  
  
Annoying Girl was enraged and, instead of attacking Calvin and Hobbes, the susceptible ones, she flew into the air and began pummeling the hull of my craft with kicks. It was dented but not damaged, and I shot lasers at her multiple times until she fell flat to the ground, where Calvin and Hobbes finished her off. They shackled her as I called police, and she was shackled at the scene. What a hectic day.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Later we were lounging around at the building, y'know, the Martial House. The nearby medical institute revived Stupendous, recovering quickly having surprisingly broken few bones. Tracer and Susie were there too but for less time, but the weapon I had shot was irreplaceable. Oh well, that was the least of my worries after today.  
  
Calvin and Hobbes never forgot their day in space, how they'd been the first of their maturity level (kid) and genus (feline) in space. Though they were wrong, I didn't tell them, and let them dream about it and have fanciful reminisces about their journey beyond Earth. 


End file.
